With the death of an era ending Moammar Gadhafi

CAIRO .- Many times it looked like a clown, standing before the audience, majestic in colorful robes, uttering words that most of the world considered meaningless. However, the death of Moammar Gadhafi is a cornerstone of modern Arab history, in many ways more important than the overthrow of autocratic less important in Tunisia and Egypt.

Gaddafi was the last old-style strongman Arabic: the charismatic, revolutionary nationalist who came to power in 1950 and 1960 with the promise to liberate the masses of European colonialism and the stultifying Arab elite rule that foreigners left back after the Second World War. These revolutionaries were convinced they could build a better society at the time but were not sure how.

Gaddafi was the last of a generation of Arab leaders like Gamal Abdel-Nasser of Egypt, Hafez Assad of Syria and Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who escaped poverty and reached the pinnacles of power elite through the ranks.

None of the successors of the Arab autocrats, including Bashar Assad, son of Hafez, Ali Abdullah Saleh on Yemen or the ousted President Hosni Mubarak, could match him in his best days in terms of charisma, attractiveness, height and power.

Arab political transformation is far from complete. Authoritarian rulers face challenges of their own people in Yemen and Syria, while governments in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are maneuvering to contain the Arab spring.

However, with the death of Qaddafi has completed a cornerstone. The future belongs to a different style of ruling, whatever it is.

It would be hard to imagine that Gaddafi recent years, with his extravagant robes, dark and curly wigs, and a face altered by surgery, was a handsome and vigorous young man of 27 when he came to power.

Over the years it became a cartoon figure and the eccentricity was the public mark of his person. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan came to describe as "the mad dog of the Middle East," while their Arab colleagues as former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat considered him a dangerous megalomaniac.

The journalists were covering his speeches and international visitors primarily as entertainment.

But it all ended in the final battle in his hometown of Sirte. The man who took power as a revolutionary and a style of the oppressed, had a brutal and shameful death at the hands of people who tried to lead.