5 years on, Robin Cook's brilliant resignation speech still resonates

[Patriot Abroad]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2859431.stm

I had tears in my eyes watching this speech, March 18th 2003 - Robin Cook called it as it was on the eve of the war, and made Blair look like a chump:

Extracts:

"Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term - namely a credible device capable of being delivered against a strategic city target. "

. . .

"I welcome the strong personal commitment that the prime minister has given to middle east peace, but Britain's positive role in the middle east does not redress the strong sense of injustice throughout the Muslim world at what it sees as one rule for the allies of the US and another rule for the rest.

Nor is our credibility helped by the appearance that our partners in Washington are less interested in disarmament than they are in regime change in Iraq.

That explains why any evidence that inspections may be showing progress is greeted in Washington not with satisfaction but with consternation: it reduces the case for war."

"What has come to trouble me most over past weeks is the suspicion that if the hanging chads in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops."

. . .

"I intend to join those tomorrow night who will vote against military action now. It is for that reason, and for that reason alone, and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the government."

[malaise]

1. Yes indeed

RIP you wonderful honest man.