All wars disorientate us. But what's going on among some on the British left as Russia invades Ukraine is not disorientation. Some have, from the very beginning of the crisis, echoed President Vladimir Putin's arguments and painted NATO as the aggressor.
When Putin rolled his tanks into Ukraine last week, the British campaign group Stop The War condemned the “movement of Russian forces into Ukraine” – it could not bring itself to use the word invasion – and urged Russia to withdraw and negotiate. But it has yet to declare its support for Ukraine's right to resist, or to call for measures such as sanctions against Russia.
Stop the War, which once mobilised millions of people against the invasion of Iraq, has also stayed away from the nightly vigils outside Downing Street that demand an end to Russia’s actions. How could this have happened?
