It's time for Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo to stop making a bad situation worse by refusing to accept the fact that he lost an election.

It's time for Gbagbo to listen to President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and most reputable African leaders and walk away from power.

It's time for Gbagbo to tell his security forces to stop firing on the people of Ivory Coast in a desperate attempt to keep office.

It's time for Gbagbo to go.

Based on the accounts of all unbiased parties, Alassane Ouattara fairly won the recent presidential election. But Gbagbo refuses to leave office even though international sanctions have been imposed and African leaders from around the continent have implored him to walk away peacefully.

Gbagbo is steering his country, once a pearl of the continent, towards a bloody future that could include troops from nearby nations or even a return to civil conflict.

Representatives from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in Mali last week to consider a military response to Gbagbo's stubbornness.

No one wants to the military get involved in this mess. No one wants a return to the civil war that enveloped the country in 2002.

Hopefully, Gbagbo proves to not to have the stomach for an armed conflict with neighboring countries. But it's impossible to predict what this despot will do -- no matter what he says.

Gbagbo has already shown his word means nothing. He promised to follow the election results. The country's independent electoral commission and the U.N. have both certified the election as honest.

So it's time for Gbagbo to go.