Your Turn: Gaddafi Disintegrates?

The illustration is very cool, but I’m wondering: what does it symbolize, exactly? and, how realistic, or fair, is it to international and Middle East politics? Also, isn’t the illustration — Gaddafi just evaporating into the desert sand — solely hinged on the fact he has yet to be captured or killed?  (…Next up, the “X?”)

(Tim O’Brien’s detailed background on the cover.)

(illustration: Tim O’Brien for TIME)