Partly Facetious: not voluntary, never voluntary

"There is a story doing the rounds..."
"That Condi Rice has replaced hawks in the Foreign Office with career diplomats and that the tide has changed in favour of those who know..."
"Right but then Cheney is still there..."
"Yes, but he can't start a war with Iran alone?"
"You also said that the Bush administration won't start a war with Iraq alone."
"I was wrong then."
"And you maybe wrong again."
"But..."
"Even if there are senior diplomats at the Foreign Office, remember it's not the Foreign Office that decides whether to go to war or not. Remember Rice's predecessor. Powell didn't want to go to war in Iraq and yet he did."
"But..."
"This story maybe planted and..."
"Why?"
"You know democracies have this obsession with being remembered by posterity, and Rice maybe looking at her own legacy."
"I agree - this is something we in the East don't seem to care about. If we did our leaders would act different to what they do."
"Right they seem to care more about foreign trips, getting contracts or giving contracts and at the same time about..."
"The story I referred to earlier also declared that Boucher is toeing a fine line in trying to convince President Musharraf, beset by internal politics, to share power and has convinced him not to declare an emergency for the next two weeks."
"Two weeks!"
"That's the story."
"I don't think the people will accept a state of emergency at this point."
"I don't think so either, maybe that's why the Americans are trying to convince him not to impose one."
"And what about the verdict passed by the Supreme Court on Nawaz Sharif's inalienable right to return?"
"Ah yes, yet another headache now."
"Exit strategy..."
"Not voluntary, never voluntary."