Much analysis of the OBL video - from the significance of that ebony beard to the bizarre sub-prime market references - is entertaining but also a distraction from a more pressing issue: the weakening of the west's influence in a region which is fast descending into chaos.

Bin Laden himself is dead or contained in some tribal village in Waziristan, while our so-called allies in Pakistan (Mush and the khaki clique in Rawalpindi) have overseen a rejuvenation of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, indirectly by leaving them be and directly by - via their intelligence establishment - pumping them dollars, guns and muscle. By every available measure, Musharraf has made things worse for the west. Radical madrasas? In 2003 he said he would regulate them but they tripled, unregulated. Banned terror groups? In 2002 virtually all were banned, until 2005 when they were unbanned.

New intelligence also shows how the so-called AQ Khan affair was not the responsibility of one man but the foreign policy of a nation state - selling WMDs to fund its military and make political pacts. See: <link>

And this is our best ally in the region? How soon before we stop talking about bin Laden and start talking about Musharraf. If ever a country was ripe for regime change, it's Pakistan.