Forty onions

Much as I wish to write a pleasant, nostalgic story, it is overtaken by something nasty every week. The news is coming in that NATO troops in Afghanistan are concentrating on the border with Pakistan. Hamid Karzai is accusing Pakistan of cross border terrorism in his country.
Barak Obama, the Democratic candidate for president in the US election this fall, says he might take action in Pakistan against Al-Qaeda. George Bush is "troubled" by news that terrorists come and go from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Sympathising with Karzai, he proposes to investigate the Afghan charges against Pakistan and get to the bottom of them. US aircraft and drones are flying threateningly over the tribal areas as rumours abound in Islamabad that they plan a precision attack there to take out some terrorist sites. There is no dearth of bad news!
This must confuse Musharraf who now reminds Karzai of Pakistan's help to Afghanistan in 2001. What is he referring to? All we remember is that he gave all the logistic help - landing strips, fuelling facility, medical and other supply line protection etc - to the US facilitating their attack on Afghanistan, our neighbour.
International Republican Institute (IRI) has just published results of a survey which is further depressing for Musharraf. The poll shows him at the rock bottom of public rating and Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry and Mian Nawaz Sharif, two of his obsessive hate objects, on top.
Approximately, 85 percent Pakistanis want Musharraf out, 83 percent want the judges restored and 82 percent regard Mian Nawaz Sharif as the most popular political leader in the country today. In character, the president is unlikely to oblige although he promised to leave if the people so wanted.