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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Enigma who wrote (5516)	3/30/2003 1:44:18 PM
From: Ron	Respond to of 21614

Send Rumsfeld, Cheney and hawks to Iraq war: Robin Cook Vijay Dutt London, March 30 Robin Cook, the former British Foreign Secretary, last night launched an extraordinary attack on Prime Minister Tony Blair by demanding that British troops be brought home from the "bloody and unnecessary war" before more are killed. Writing in the Sunday Mirror, he said, "I have already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed." He added that the way to show consideration for the families of the British servicemen whose bodies were brought home would have been not to start the war at all. Significantly Mr Cook chose to fire his onslaught on Mr Blair just as the first batch of coffins of soldiers who died in action in Iraq were flown to Britain. Also his article was carried by the Sunday Mirror, which has been virulently opposed to the war. He threw aside the convention of not underimining British forces while they are engaged in conflict. His intervention drew an angry response from ministers and Tories. The feeling is that Cook's tirade marks the start of a full-scale campaign to oust a weakened Blair. The attempt to unseat Blair can be made, as per party rules, at Labour's annual conference in September. Mr Cook also fired a broadside at President Bush although MPs here believe that he had Blair in his sight. "It is Ok for Bush to say the war will go on as long as it takes. He is sitting pretty in the comfort of Camp David.... Personally I would like to volunteer Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz to be "embedded" alongside the journalists with the forward units." He also warned that "There will be a long-term legacy of hatred for the west if the Iraqi people continue to suffer from the effects of war we started." The hard Left in the backbenchers are expected to rally round Mr Cook. But it is to be seen what would be people's reaction to his attack. The ICM poll survey for the News of the World showed that 84 per cent of Britons now believe that the war should be continued until its objectives are achieved. A Downing Street communique said, "Robin Cook has a well-known position on Iraq -- it is not one that is shared by the Prime Minister."