Well, I mentioned the oil because I’ve seen it said by numerous people. I agree; it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either. The UK traded the Lockerbie Bomber to get an oil deal, France already had an oil deal, and Kaddafi kept his word on deals better than a lot of other dictators. And he kept things in order.
Now, if the new temporary government breaks up into tribal warfare, they may get less oil from Libya than they did before. Or maybe none at all. Which, frankly, would serve them right.
Gaddafi had a limited shelf life and his sons were shaping up to be more westernized than he was. I guess working with them towards more reform was out of the question. Throwing Libya into chaos doesn’t seem like the best route into sub-Saharan Africa either. It will serve them right if northern Africa becomes a major headache but it won’t serve the world in general very well. It may be Europe’s Waterloo.