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Robin Cook on DSM - Critical "new" Document | 5 comments (5 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Thanks (none / 1)

I'm glad you found my post of interest. I've been having a hell of a time getting anybody anywhere to take this seriously, yet I think it is the key in the lock as far as the DSM is concerned.

I don't know whether Cook's diary will become a classic. When I lived in the UK in the 1980s, I thought that Cook was the most brilliant politician on the scene (I'd not even heard of Blair), and that he was a natural for PM. His diary is insightful and readable, but it also has the feel of something was always destined for print in that it often is self-serving.

Cook portrays himself as trying to stand up to Blair over Iraq, yet it's apparent that he would not have been much use without a Blunkett to lead the way. Oddly, I get the sense that he viewed his role vis a vis Blair, as a wise advisor who might bend the other to a better course, just as Blair viewed his role in relation to Bush. Cook has heaped scorn on Blair's view of himself, but is not quite as critical of his own failure to hold Blair to account.

Yet for all his flaws, Cook did do the right thing in the end. That is so unusual in politics as to draw attention to itself.

Inconvenient News Doing my part to afflict the comfortable.

by smintheus on Mon Jul 11th, 2005 at 10:53:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thanks (none / 0)

I agree with you, particularly about the resignation.

In retrospect, even if he had wanted to, Blair was never going to influence whether there would be an invasion of Iraq - unless he was prepared to say to Bush that the UK was not going to join the escapade. Once he'd failed to stand up on that point, the best he was able to get was the attempt to carry the Security Council, which really only ended up humiliating Colin Powell.

musings of a bureaucrat

by canberra boy (canberraboy1 at gmail dot com) on Tue Jul 12th, 2005 at 12:14:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Blair could have ensured that Bush (none / 0)

had virtually no support in the US, if he had the courage and sense to do it. I truly believe that (and I guess I would find it depressing to believe that nobody could stop a rampaging US president). I think that simply by refusing to go along with an invasion while UN inspectors were inspecting would have put Bush on the spot. Besides, Blair could have released an accurate dossier of intelligence, which would have taken the wind out of Bush's sails. It would have angered Bush, and as Cook says in one section of his diary, Blair found it easier to resist the anger of people in the UK than to stand up to Bush.

Inconvenient News Doing my part to afflict the comfortable.

by smintheus on Tue Jul 12th, 2005 at 12:42:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Robin Cook on DSM - Critical "new" Document | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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