Now that the army has turned serious, Baitullah Mehsud cannot expect tostroll down Constitution Avenue any time soon, nor hope to sit in thepresidency. A few thousand mountain barbarians, even if trained by Al Qaeda'sbest, cannot possibly seize power from a modern, well-armed state with 600,000soldiers. The spectre of Pakistan collapsing in six months - a fear expressed bya senior US military adviser in March - has evaporated.