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All UK ministers to blame for Iraq war, says Cook

IRNA

London, Sept 26, IRNA -- The entire British government, not just Prim 
Minister Tony Blair, must take the blame for leading Britain into the 
disastrous Iraq war, according to former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.
"It is true that the dynamic for British participation come from 
Number 10 (Downing Street) and was driven by Tony`s determination to 
maintain the special relationship with (US President) George Bush," 
Cook said. 
"But it is an evasion to let Tony take all the blame. Others had 
the chance to save him from himself," he said in an article for the 
Guardian newspaper Friday. 
Cook, who resigned from his cabinet post as leader of the House of
Commons in protest against the war, said that he included himself in 
saying that all ministers must accept responsibility for the disaster.
The Prime Minister "was meticulous in letting the Cabinet debate 
Iraq, but was never challenged by a sizable number of senior 
ministers," he revealed. 
The former House of Commons leader said that he had "become 
increasingly angry with myself for not being more persuasive at 
repeated meetings in convincing Tony Blair of the damage he would do 
to himself and his party if he persisted in a unilateral war." 
Another opportunity to prevent the war was also allowed by the 
Prime Minister in setting a historic precedent by agreeing that 
parliament should vote before troops were committed into action. 
But Cook said that Parliament voted to go along with him, even 
though he himself, along with over 150 Labor and all 53 Liberal 
Democrat MPs voted against. 
He suggested that the main opposition Conservative Party should 
also take the blame, having "constantly egged on the Prime Minister 
to go to war. 
Blair`s former Foreign Secretary proposed that there was a 
profound less to be learnt from the Iraq war debacle for Britain`s 
constitutional system. 
"We need an urgent return to more collegiate government, with the 
Cabinet and Parliament providing the real checks and balances on the 
preoccupations of the Prime Minister, which they failed to supply 
over Iraq," he said. 
HC/216 
End