"The differences are widening."
"Between the US and the Muslim world after the latest Sharon-Bush deal?"
"Well yes, that is true, and Blair the Poodle wagged his tail as well, but that is not what I was referring to."
"About the US and Poodle and the rest of the world regarding Iraq?"
"True again but once again not what I was referring to."
"I give up. What then?"
"About Musharraf's idea of democracy and that of the others."
"The others being.?"
"The Nawalas and the Jiyalas and the Maulanas and well everyone else other than the Lotas and the other rag tag band of Musharrafites."
"So what happened this time around?"
"Well, Musharraf says that the National Security Council is a good thing and will strengthen democracy. He seems to reckon that as the army has ruled more than the civilians in Pakistan it is only realistic to have the army play a regular role in our politics through the NSC."
"But as rulers do they still need the NSC?"
"Well, I guess then it would be an overkill...but the point is that when Musharraf is gone he reckons we would still have the NSC which would ensure that the army can legally interfere in politics and then maybe, just maybe, there will be fewer coups than what we have witnessed over the last 55 or so years."
"Well, we haven't had so many coups - the problem is that once the coup happens these guys live as long as a decade as leaders which means that the NSC should be empowered to get rid of an army man who rules for more than eight years...let's have a constitutional amendment and..."
Like the seventeenth on which the powers that be are trying to renege, or at least laying the groundwork for the possibility of reneging."
"Well in our country when you are in power, anything is possible - the constitution becomes so much toilet paper if you want and..."