Carne Ross & Chilcot

... there was no deliberate discussion of available alternatives to military action in advance of the military invasion. There is no record of that discussion, no official has referred to it, no minister has talked about it. And that seems to me to be a very egregious absence in history, that at some point a government before going to war should stop and ask itself are there available alternatives.

As my testimony makes clear, there was an available alternative. All that argument about tightening sanctions and stopping illegal breaches to me amounted to a very viable, robust alternative to military action that would have had the possible effect of undermining the Saddam regime, and certainly would have prevented any major rearmament ... The fact that that deliberation, that consideration of alternatives, did not take place is, to me, a disgrace.

Taken from Mr Carne Ross*'s statement to the Chilcot Inquiry.

Please read other extracts from his statement over at the Guardian

*
Mr Carne Ross is ...

... the Foreign Office "whistleblower" who resigned after speaking out about the war. He worked as a British diplomat at the UN and, in a submission to the Butler inquiry (which was originally secret, but which was subsequently published in 2006), he said that officials did not regard Iraq's WMD programme as a threat to the UK.

His 17 page witness statement opens with a tribute to Dr. David Kelly.

....

Did Bob Ainsworth forget the RAF?

It is reported that

Government ministers were under fire today after failing to welcome home RAF crews returning at the end of 18 years of operations in Iraq.

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth had been expected to attend a ceremony at RAF Marham, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, to mark the conclusion of one of the RAF’s longest deployments.

The Ministry of Defence said earlier this week that Mr Ainsworth would be at Marham to see the return of the last six Tornado fighters stationed in the Gulf.

But Mr Ainsworth did not appear, and base officials said he had been unable to come because of a debate at Westminster.

Mrs Rigby has checked Hansard for today, she cannot find Mrs Ainsworth's name mentioned in any of the debates, so she thinks it looks as if he forgot his responsibilities and somebody had to make excuses on his behalf.

The article says

The RAF has lost 27 crew members between 1991 and 2009 - most killed following the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Sad, isn't it, and a sign of the times that Government Ministers can so conveniently forget those who have been laying their lives on the line for this country, and who have done so following a decision made by this particular government.