Britain's Cook Was Opposed to Iraq War

[cal04]

Lest anyone forget that former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook opposed the war in Iraq, his family have emblazoned it on his tombstone.

Cook, who died Aug. 6, 2005, was the only member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet to resign before the invasion because of opposition to the war.

His wife and his two sons by a previous marriage placed this epitaph on Cook's stone in the Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh: ``I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war.''

Cook was the first foreign secretary in Blair's government, but was later shifted to the post of leader of the House of Commons - the lower house of parliament.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6332737,00.html

[Greeby]

1. (VIDEO) Watch the resignation speech here

http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/10/robin-cook-resignation-speech.html

[Briar]

2. I have always thought that Cook

was sacked as Foreign Secretary because of his opposition to war talk from the Bush administration. And that Straw was kicked out later because he would not support the coming attack on Iran.

[quiet.american]

3. I still lament Robin Cook's death.

Almost no one was better on their feet fielding and returning verbal darts during Prime Minister's Question Time, and his resignation speech was truly powerful and poignant -- one of those Winston Churchill moments all good English politicians seem to aspire to, but rarely achieve. What a fitting epitaph.