War-mongering politicians are running out of ammunition and time

It is incredible that an internationally-renowned movement like Stop the War, which brings together the broadest coalition of peace activists drawn from all sections of multi-cultural Britain, is now coming under fire from a gaggle of disgruntled career politicians. The latter seem to have forgotten that at the height of its influence, Stop the War brought two million people onto the streets of London in 2003 to protest about the then pending and ultimately illegal invasion of Iraq. More than eight million other people across Europe, many of whom were inspired by STW, rallied in their own capitals, towns and cities.

I have not always agreed with the movement but on the night of 7 October, 2001, I swore that I would join its ranks, if I survived being bombed by Britain and America. Held as a prisoner by the Taliban, I sat in my prison cell in Kabul as more than 50 cruise missiles rained down on the Afghan capital following George W Bush’s launch of his “War on Terror”. Although I’d covered conflicts before, it was always from a safe distance. I was detached enough not to appreciate the full terror of war, but being bombed by your own country added a new dimension to the experience.

Cruise missiles can be felt and heard 20 miles away from where they land, so you can imagine the sheer terror I experienced locked in a Taliban prison with nowhere to run or hide as these massive weapons of death and destruction landed a few hundred yards from my cell. Suddenly the scary looking guys with big beards and big turbans who were guarding me no longer seemed that frightening.

Within a few weeks of being released, I told my story from a Stop the War platform in Trafalgar Square before 60,000 people who believed, like me, in the futility of the war in Afghanistan. While I would describe myself as a peace activist, like Jeremy Corbyn I’m neither a pacifist nor anti-West nor anti-American, but lazy journalists and the neocons still try to conflate all three into one convenient slur.

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Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk