Truth is the first casualty of war: Ancient wisdom has a new twist

Fantastic claims made during the India-Pakistan conflict suggest patriotism is a more saleable product than information

- SANJOY CHAKRAVORTY

First, I read the maxim that truth is the first casualty of war many years ago, in high school. In order to write this column, I did a 'fact check' on the origins of the adage. I was not at all surprised to see that there are multiple possible sources: US Republican Senator Hiram Johnson in 1918, Samuel Johnson in 1758, and, most popularly, the Greek dramatist Aeschylus around 550 BCE. It's a sign of the times that there are multiple truth claims on a saying about truth.

The argument in the axiom is simple and persuasive. Information is a powerful weapon at all times, but especially so during war. All parties in a conflict, governments in particular, seek to show themselves in a favorable light and make claims about the moral justifications for their own actions and the moral inferiority of their enemies. The tools that governments use are also well known: Propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and the suppression or censoring of facts. This manipulation of information has two audiences: the international community (which requires a whole other discussion) and, even more important, their own populations (for without public support, it is hard to sustain a war or ask the people to sacrifice).