1 Topic by SS Elephant (edited by SS Elephant 2005-08-07 11:34:31)

  • From: City of Angels
  • Registered: 2005-06-25

Topic: Robin Cook -- dead!

I was pretty stunned to go over to the Guardian's website today (http://www.guardian.co.uk) and learn that Robin Cook had suddenly died:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics … 61,00.html

It really hit me, and when I read through the article I was filled with a distrubing feeling of dread.

Robin Cook was basically one of the few people in Britain who might have been an alternative to Blair within the Labour ranks.  He was foreign secretary of Britain and resigned on the eve of the Iraq War, saying it was unnecessary, and was, up to his death, an outspoken critic of the war.  After the recent bombings, he again criticized the war on terror, saying "So long as the struggle against terrorism is conceived as a war that can be won by military means, it is doomed to fail. The more the West emphasizes confrontation, the more it silences moderate voices in the Muslim world," and, "President Bush is given to justifying the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that by fighting terrorism abroad, it protects the West from having to fight terrorists at home. Whatever else can be said in defense of the war in Iraq today, it cannot be claimed that it protected us from terrorism on our soil."  (taken from this website: http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6939)

It seems that he was one of the few mainstream politicians in the Anglo-American world that was decrying the war on terror and saying violence was not the answer.  And now he's dead.

I found these sentences from the first guardian article very telling:

"Ironically, friends said Cook had never appeared healthier and happier since leaving office: he was a keen outdoorsman who kept fit by riding and walking."

Cook may well have suddenly taken ill and just died.  But it is extremely odd that an otherwise healthy 59 year old man, who happened to be a harsh critic of the status quo and a potential future leader of the Labour ranks, would just keel over without warning.

And reading the "tributes" in the BBC from such people as Condoleeza Rice ("a defender of freedom" she called him) disgusts me to no end. 

Anyway love to know what y'all think

SSE

Your focus determines your reality -- Qui Gon Jinn
  • Registered: 2004-03-25

Re: Robin Cook -- dead!

Either he was killed, or he died because he was fed up. My step-aunt died suddenly
soon after the war started. She was a Bible scholar and expert on much of the history of the Middle East, a place she cared about. Both things are possible. It takes alot of strength sometimes to go against the prevailing
opinions and actions of the day. Hyperdimensionals can flare up health problems in
those attempting to expose the system, particularly before thay are planning some
great harvest of ill-gotten-gains. So, in a moment of weakness, some of the strongest people can thus be removed. It is disgusting in itself, but then to speak of it as Rice did, with her decisions and alliances, is terrible. These people are droids.
However, they can't destroy everyone who steps in their way, and of course, a win is a loss in their case, because they always underestimate the power of the forces for good arrayed against them. This will only strengthen the resolve of those who
agree with Cook.

3 Reply by Barefoot Doc (edited by Barefoot Doc 2005-08-08 01:16:01)

  • From: England
  • Registered: 2005-04-20

Re: Robin Cook -- dead!

Sad news indeed , its almost certain they killed Dr David Kelly over Iraq and i get the feeling Cook knew more than he was telling as a former member of the Government so who knows?
Unlike George Galloway and Tony Benn, Clare Sort who are seen as left wing trouble makers by much of the public, Cook was well respected and more would listen to what he had to say.

Its not like we are fractions of the whole but rather versions of the whole.