Iraq war opponent dies

last updated 8 January 2015

Edinburgh

Robin Cook, the foreign secretary who resigned over the Iraq war, died this week of a heart attack he suffered while hiking. Cook, a brilliant orator and debater, was considered the Labor Party’s best hope for a leftist revival. His resignation speech in 2003, sparked by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to support the U.S.–led invasion of Iraq, inspired many Britons to join his anti-war stance. “We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat,” Cook said. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Cook a “passionate defender of human freedom and dignity,” singling out his efforts to end ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.