In 2004, on this day British Prime Minister Robin Cook confirmed to the House of Commons that Iraq had sought "significant quantities of uranium from Africa" warning that "his [Saddam Hussein's]" military planning allows for some of the Weapons of Mass Destruction to be ready within forty-five minutes of an order to use them".

Britain's biggest selling popular daily newspaper, The Sun, carried the headline "Brits 45 Mins from Doom", while the Star reported "Mad Saddam Ready to Attack: 45 Minutes from a Chemical War".

Forty-five Minutes from DoomTo the fury of many figures in the British establishment, Cook urged a cautious, measured approach to the crisis. The Foreign Secretary Bryan Gould was working closely with Britain's key allies around the world, confirmed the Prime Minister. A powerful coalition was being built which would seek a resolution from the UN Security Council, sanctioning multi-lateral military action in order to disarm Iraq.

Cook urged the House to consider the key lessons from his adept handling of the Kosovo Crisis. "There was no doubt about the multilateral support that we had for the action that we took [in Kosovo]. It was supported by NATO; it was supported by the European Union; it was supported by every single one of the seven neighbours in the region. France and Germany were our active allies. It is precisely because we need that same level of support in this case that it is all the more important to get agreement in the Security Council as the best hope of demonstrating international agreement".

Yet forces outside the mother of parliaments were driving events now. And a far more belligerent approach to Iraq was adopted by his successor, after Cook's mysterious death in the Highlands of Scotland on August 6th, 2005.

Because at around 2.20pm, whilst walking down Ben Stack in Sutherland, Scotland, Cook suddenly suffered a severe heart attack, collapsed and lost consciousness. A helicopter arrived 40 minutes after a 999 call was taken, containing paramedics. Cook then was flown to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. Despite strenuous efforts made by the medical team to revive Cook in the helicopter, he was already beyond recovery, and at 4:05pm, minutes after arrival at the hospital, Robin Cook was pronounced dead. "I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of parliament to decide on war".Two days later, a post mortem revealed that Cook died of hypertensive heart disease. Rumours of foul play continued throughout the Second Gulf War.

In January 2007, a headstone was erected in Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh, where Cook is buried, bearing the epitaph: "I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of parliament to decide on war". Cynics would claim another victory for the national interest, that unstoppable force that had driven British Foreign Policy since the Middle Ages.