It’s official. If you had Muammar al-Gadhafi in your “biggest pussy in the known universe” office pool, you need to go collect your winnings.

Sorry, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Better luck next year.

As the world continues to digest reports that two Libyan air force pilots, allegedly ordered to bomb protesters, have defected to Malta it seems that Gadhafi has an even more grotesque joke to play on the civilized world. According to reports trickling out of Libya via news outlets like Al-Jazeera, Gadhafi may actually have pilots in his air force obliging enough to pull the trigger.

Of course, Al-Jazeera seems to hold questionable faith in these reports, putting quotation marks around the word “bomb”.

Gadhafi may not have even stopped there. Reports are also surfacing of Libyan troops opening fire on protesters with artillery.

With all of the means used to brutally suppress political dissent in countries like Iran and China, it seemingly took a butcher like Muammar al-Gadhafi to set the bar just a little bit higher.

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that in September, 2009, Gadhafi had planned a brief stopover in Newfoundland. When he learned that Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, planned to show up to personally confront him, Gadhafi instead returned directly to Libya, barred Canadians from coming to Libya, and threatened to nationalize Petro-Canada holdings in the country.

Which prompts two responses: first, to the barring of Canadians from visiting Libya: what’s the problem? Second, to the threat of nationalizing PetroCan holdings: what were they doing in Libya in the first place?

Gadhafi is a coward.

Once upon a time, there was a time when a deposed despot knew their place. They would go into exile in some foreign country, and periodically insist that what the people who have deposed them desperately want is to have them back. If they ever wish to, they can always go back for a short visit and a quick reminder of reality, a la Baby Doc Duvalier.

But not Gadhafi. No, to Gadhafi the answer is apparently to resort to the most brutal means of oppressing political dissent. It’s remarkable how quickly someone as spineless as Gadhafi has turned to crimes against humanity in his bid to retain power, no matter what.

What remains unbelievable is that the western world has yet to decide upon a response to Gadhafi’s brutality. Here’s an idea: deploy NATO air forces. Now. Shoot down each and every Libyan air force jet that takes off, and destroy any that remain on the ground.

Gadhafi apparently won’t play nice with his toys, so they get taken away from him. Simple. But it doesn’t end there.

Next, we drag Muammar al-Gadhafi to Slobodan Milosevic’s old cell at The Hague.

The rest writes itself.

Patrick Ross is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist