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archived: 7 - 13 Aug, 2005 Back Next UPDATED: August 9, 2005 A HIROSHIMA AU REVOIR (The Apotheosis of Robin Cook) Last Saturday marked the sixtieth anniversary of the defining moment of every human life on earth today. The bombings of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki – which took place sixty years ago today – opened the door to the future of mankind. When we stepped through that door, we discovered that the future we had created was darker, more menacing and more insecure than anything we had ever known before. For the past two weeks, our newspapers, our radio and our television broadcasts have been punctuated by images of the ruins of Hiroshima. We have been reminded of the horrendous catastrophe that opened our particular historical epoch. In opening that door to our future, we incinerated 120,000 human beings, a brutal sacrificial offering laid on the altar of security. In so doing, we placed all of our lives in constant jeopardy of immediate annihilation. We reduced ourselves to mere pawns in a Strangelovian game of Russian roulette that continuously takes place against a cosmic backdrop of an incandescent blast of radiation and its concomitant supersonic vortex of absolute destruction. Neither are we the sole victims of this twisted and perverted vision of national security. The environment and the climate of the planet which we inhabit lie directly in the crosshairs of any thermonuclear exchange. The world on the other side of nuclear war is unlike any world that mankind has ever inhabited before. It is hostile. It is toxic. It is a world governed by death, devolution and cosmic disintegration. Since the assumption of power by the Bush-Cheney regime, official US policy toward nuclear weapons has been altered in a fundamental way. Prior to the inauguration of the 43rd president of the United States, nuclear non-proliferation had been the official policy since the time of JFK. Today, the US is actively seeking to violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in order to bring forth a new generation of doomsday devices in the form of advanced nuclear weapons. Worse. The driving ambition of the Bush-Cheney government is to weaponize outer space with the new generation of nuclear weapons and to launch the fifth armed service: Space Force. The strategic objective of Space Force is to checkmate every other nation and political entity by imposing a strategic weapon of mass destruction so overwhelmingly powerful that American radicals can impose a, “New American Century by embracing a New World Order.” Perhaps, it is irrelevant to point out that neither Space Force nor nuclear weapons – regardless how advanced – are impotent against terrorism, but that is undeniably so. The anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remind us of the folly of doomsday devices that promise us they will deliver the will to wage a war that will end all wars. Even as the Pentagon is drawing up plans for the aerial bombardment of Iran – replete with nuclear weapons to destroy strategic targets, there is a hue and cry that the world would be a far safer place if all WMDs – especially nuclear weapons – were eliminated. But, the Bush-Cheney White House is turning its back and setting its face against any such notion of a non-nuclear future. In Britain, one politician began his career as an implacable opponent of nuclear weapons. From his early days in professional politics in the 1970s, Robin Cook championed the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Rising up through the ranks of the most progressive political party in Britain, Labour, Robin Cook embodied the spirit of social democracy, tolerance and pluralism more than any other parliamentarian of his generation. Robin Cook was a powerful shaman of the Labour Party. He used words and language with the consummate skill of a magician. In the older generation, Tony Benn had been the ranking shaman of Labour. In 2001, Lord Benn retired, “to give more time to politics,” leaving Robin Cook as the ranking shaman in – even with all its faults - the world’s most democratic national political institution. Robin Cook did not disappoint. Whether he spoke from the front benches in opposition or from the back benches of the parliamentary party in power, he delivered devastating attacks on his opponents – whether they were in the opposition or in his own party. As Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook fashioned what will someday be remembered as the first, faltering attempts to base foreign policy on an ethical basis. This was a revolutionary idea. Henry Kissinger had decreed that diplomacy should always be based on national self interest. Cook is the counterbalancing polar extremity to Kissinger. During Cook’s four year term as Foreign Secretary, he established annual human rights reports to parliament, and he launched the annual European Union arms audit to track sales and shipments of the mechanisms of war – a first in world history. In 2001, Tony Blair removed Robin Cook from his office and demoted him to Leader of the House of Commons. Cook’s replacement was the far less controversial – and less spectacularly brilliant - Jack Straw, who has been a reliable – if not visionary – Foreign Secretary. Cook remained intensely loyal to the Blair government, and he served in his new post with capability, dignity and distinction. In this role, Cook championed the direct election of the House of Lords, which would be a giant step in the right direction for advocates of democracy. However, there was a parting of the ways. In the build-up to the war in Iraq, Robin Cook decided that he could not support a war without the support of the people or the sanction of international law. In what is now being described as one of the most important speeches in the history of Parliament, Robin Cook mesmerised the nation when he explained his decision to resign from the Blair government. Speaking in a calm voice with beautifully modulated intonations, Robin Cook delivered the case against going forward with plans to attack a nation for no good reason. When he sat down, the applause was tumultuous. He had captured the mood of the moment with absolute perfection. He was immediately hailed as the most principled Member of Parliament. From the back benches, Cook continued to deliver the best and the brightest speeches on the entire spectrum of government policy. He never descended to rancour or recrimination. What he did, and how he did it will be the focus of academic and professional studies for years to come. He had the innate ability to seize the center of an argument and to make it his own. He could absorb a vast parliamentary report in minutes and – with surgical precision – dissect it to its nth degree. In the process, he converted virtually every listener within earshot. His gift for convincing political and parliamentary debate rivalled or surpassed every living and past statesman in British history. In parliament, he was easily the most effective critic of the war in Iraq. That over 80% of the nation agrees with him is a testament to the power of his persuasion. Neither did he conceal his support for Gordon Brown. Shortly after this year’s election, Cook was the first heavy hitter to suggest that Blair should step down in favor of Brown sooner rather than later. After the London bombings, Cook cautioned against any over-reaction, but Blair heeded him not, much to his own detriment and a discernable decrease in his already flagging credibility. Cook’s opposition to Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons has caused popular support for nuclear deterrence to drop to its lowest level in history. He constantly argued that the military could never defeat terrorism. His criticism of Bush and Blair for their war was a constantly evolving dissertation on the errors that lie at the foundation of neoconservativism. Perhaps, his most memorable quote is, “We would have made more progress against terrorism if we had brought peace to Palestine rather than war to Iraq.” His writings and speeches are rich in gems of wisdom that will inspire and infuse generations of admirers. No longer bounded by the proprieties of the cabinet, he wrote columns and comment for the leading newspapers. He devoted one column per month to racing. An avid follower of the sport of kings and queens and parliamentarians, Cook rode his trusty steed, Hamlet, with the elan of a professional equestrian. While not in London or at one of Britain’s many racetracks, he would walk the hills and valleys of Britain to recharge his energy, clear his mind and meditate on the peace that is only found in nature. A native of Scotland – home of many Labour grandees – Cook knew and loved the highlands, the lowlands and the islands. Last Saturday, on the sixtieth anniversary of Hiroshima, he and his wife were ascending the peak of Ben Stock in the extreme north of Scotland. Climbing up a challenging slope only 300 metres from the summit, Robin Cook died of a massive heart attack. Underlining his lifelong quest for an end to our nuclear nightmare, he timed his moment of departure to absolute perfection in effect executing a brilliant Hiroshima au revoir. Cook’s untimely death has shocked the nation like none other since the death of Dr. David Kelley in 2003. The last time that Labour lost a major politician to an untimely death was in 1994, when the leader of the Party, John Smith, unexpectedly died of a heart attack. In 1997, the death of Diana came as a late summer shock, and today, the passing of the man who was regarded as our parliamentarian with the greatest sensitivity and integrity is taking its toll on the nation. For an American audience to appreciate the death of Robin Cook you would have to imagine that you could roll Senator Robert Byrd, Senator Ted Kennedy and Bernie Saunders into one man, and then imagine his untimely death at the relatively early age of 59. Robin Cook had those dimensions and more to his political credibility. Today, Robin Cook is being eulogised as the most important parliamentarian of his generation. In my judgment, he deserves that accolade, and there is no apparent candidate for his successor. Somewhere, Robin Cook is now riding Hamlet along the crest of a mountain in the highlands or over one of our greenest hills, and his countenance is growing larger and larger in the clouds soaring out into space far above the emerald landscape. _______________
Robin Cook, who died on
Saturday, was one of the most principled and eloquent politicians of our
time.
Return to Cabinet role for
Cook was on the cards
Leading article: Cook's
legacy should be a timetable for leaving Iraq The writings of Robin Cook
Robin Cook, Worse than
irrelevant / Replacing Trident is against both our national interests
and our international obligations
Robin Cook, Our troops are
part of the problem Heavy-handed occupation is not a solution to the
Iraqi insurgency
Robin Cook, They have no
idea how to win their war Bush and Blair demand support over Iraq but
have no strategy
Robin Cook, The struggle
against terrorism cannot be won by military means The G8 must seize the
opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities __________________ Since 1968, Michael Carmichael has been a professional political consultant. Beginning as a Student Coordinator for Robert F. Kennedy, he has worked in five US presidential campaigns as well as over 100 major American political campaigns for federal and state offices. In 1985, he founded The Oxford Centre for Public Affairs in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global public affairs organization based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared as a public affairs expert on the BBC, European Business News, NPR and many European television broadcasts examining American politics and culture. In addition to his column for The Political Junkies, he is a regular contributor to the Moving Planet weblog. See: www.planetarymovement.org and http://planetmove.blogspot.com/
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
