The endgame in the Libyan conflict has at last arrived. Much of Libya's capital is now in insurgents' hands, with the rebel army entering from all directions.

The military impotence of forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gadhafi visible for a week - had been matched by the regime's growing political disarray. Senior Gadhafi cronies were defecting - most recently deputy interior minister Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdullah fled to Cairo with nine family members, followed a few days later by oil chief Omran Abukraa. Like Saddam Hussein in 2003, Gadhafi appears to have gone into hiding.

So what will become of post-Gadhafi Libya? Former US secretary of state Colin Powell famously admonished former president George W. Bush before the Iraq War: "If you break it, you own it." Bush, however, shrugged off Powell's warning, and it was not long before the world watched in horror as it became clear that there was no detailed plan to govern or rebuild post-Saddam Iraq. Instead, the country endured a hideous war of all against all that left uncounted thousands dead.