Why I Had To Leave Blair's Cabinet

I have resigned from the cabinet because I believe that a fundamental principle of Labour's foreign policyhas been violated. If we believe in an international community based on binding rules and institutions, wecannot simply set them aside when they produce results that are inconvenient to us.

I cannot defend a war with neither international agreement nor domestic support. I applaud the determinedefforts of the prime minister and foreign secretary to secure a second resolution. Now that those attemptshave ended in failure, we cannot pretend that getting a second resolution was of no importance.

In recent days France has been at the receiving end of the most vitriolic criticism. However, it is notFrance alone that wants more time for inspections. Germany is opposed to us. Russia is opposed to us. Indeedat no time have we signed up even the minimum majority to carry a second resolution. We delude ourselves aboutthe degree of international hostility to military action if we imagine that it is all the fault of PresidentChirac.

The harsh reality is that Britain is being asked to embark on a war without agreement in any of theinternational bodies of which we are a leading member. Not Nato. Not the EU. And now not the security council.To end up in such diplomatic isolation is a serious reverse. Only a year ago we and the US were part of acoalition against terrorism which was wider and more diverse than I would previously have thought possible.History will be astonished at the diplomatic miscalculations that led so quickly to the disintegration of thatpowerful coalition.

Britain is not a superpower. Our interests are best protected, not by unilateral action, but bymultilateral agreement and a world order governed by rules. Yet tonight the international partnerships mostimportant to us are weakened. The European Union is divided. The security council is in stalemate. Those areheavy casualties of war without a single shot yet being fired.

The threshold for war should always be high. None of us can predict the death toll of civilians in theforthcoming bombardment of Iraq. But the US warning of a bombing campaign that will "shock and awe"makes it likely that casualties will be numbered at the very least in the thousands. Iraq's military strengthis now less than half its size at the time of the last Gulf war. Ironically, it is only because Iraq'smilitary forces are so weak that we can even contemplate invasion. And some claim his forces are so weak, sodemoralised and so badly equipped that the war will be over in days.

We cannot base our military strategy on the basis that Saddam is weak and at the same time justifypre-emptive action on the claim that he is a seri ous threat. Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destructionin the commonly understood sense of that term - namely, a credible device capable of being delivered againststrategic city targets. It probably does still have biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions. Butit has had them since the 1980s when the US sold Saddam the anthrax agents and the then British governmentbuilt his chemical and munitions factories.

Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has beenthere for 20 years and which we helped to create? And why is it necessary to resort to war this week whileSaddam's ambition to complete his weapons programme is frustrated by the presence of UN inspectors?

I have heard it said that Iraq has had not months but 12 years in which to disarm, and our patience isexhausted. Yet it is over 30 years since resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from the occupiedterritories.

We do not express the same impatience with the persis tent refusal of Israel to comply. What has come totrouble me most over past weeks is the suspicion that if the hanging chads in Florida had gone the other wayand Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops to action in Iraq.

I believe the prevailing mood of the British public is sound. They do not doubt that Saddam Hussein is abrutal dictator. But they are not persuaded he is a clear and present danger to Britain. They want theinspections to be given a chance. And they are suspicious that they are being pushed hurriedly into conflictby a US administration with an agenda of its own. Above all, they are uneasy at Britain taking part in amilitary adventure without a broader international coalition and against the hostility of many of ourtraditional allies. It has been a favourite theme of commentators that the House of Commons has lost itscentral role in British politics. Nothing could better demonstrate that they are wrong than for parliament tostop the commitment of British troops to a war that has neither international authority nor domestic support.

Robin Cook was, until yesterday, leader of the House of Commons.