Partly Facetious: between the devil and the deep sea

"Musharraf went on yet another foreign trip."
"Yes this time to the Middle East."
"What was the purpose?"
"He doesn't take me into confidence..."
"Don't be facetious. It must have come out in the press releases. I understand we have a new and improved democracy at work but there still are some checks and balances if you know what I mean and..."
"Ostensibly to bring peace to the Middle East."
"You are kidding."
"Nope that's what I read in the newspapers."
"He can't bring peace to the region which houses Pakistan and he went to the Middle East to bring peace. This is really stretching it a bit, don't you think?"
"That's because we live between the devil and the deep blue sea."
"The devil being India and the deep blue sea being the Karzai government?"
"Yes, but the deep blue sea maybe better described as the Coalition forces stationed in Afghanistan. I mean between you and me there is no evidence to suggest that Karzai is really the man behind the seat of power in Kabul."
"That's true."
"And then there are allegations that our government is supporting the Taliban and given our past history...
"Zia is no more."
"But Zia was also a big proponent of the new and improved democracy and so they think that as Zia supported the Taliban so does Musharraf."
"That's not true. In Musharraf's case it is failure to subjugate the will of the people of Waziristan and Balochistan and..."
"You don't subjugate the will of your countrymen, you harness it to achieve development as well as to determine your foreign policy..."
"Sometimes you show such acute lack of knowledge of this country."
"Anyway how many people did Musharraf take this time around?"
"Only 40."
"So our tax money is going to go house them and feed them and..."
"Indeed yes."