London, Mar 30: Robin Cook, who recently resigned as a senior government minister, was under attack today over his call for British troops to be withdrawn from the Iraq War. Cook, who was foreign secretary from 1997 to 2001, resigned from his position as leader of the House of Commons, the Lower House of the British Parliament, on March 17, calling the US-British war on Iraq "bloody and unjust".
The remarks drew fire from foreign office junior minister Mike O'Brien who said, "I don't think this is the time to start telling our troops that they have got to withdraw, leave Saddam Hussein in place and leave his butchery to continue in Iraq." Home secretary David Blunkett said in a television interview today that Cook was "mistaken" in his views, and appeared to question his loyalties, saying, "We have to ask everyone to answer the question 'who do you wish to win' the war.”
The prime minister's office played down Cook's remarks saying he had "a well-known position on Iraq and it is not one that the government shares." Bernard Jenkin, defence spokesman for Britain's opposition Conservative Party, said Cook's comments were "very surprising" and accused him of "advocating yet another betrayal of the Iraqi people."
But Doug Henderson, a former junior defence minister for the governing Labour Party, said Cook reflected what much of the British public were thinking. Bureau Report