The adage “truth is the first casualty in war” has several adaptations and we actually do not know who shared this excellent idea first time in human history but we know that ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus (550 BC) was the first who used dialogue that had meaning equal to “when war is declared, truth is the first victim”. Other names on the list are US politician Senator Hiram Warren Johnson (1918), Arthur Ponsonby (1940) and Dr Samuel Johnson (1758). Whosoever said this, this phrase is truly a divine one and we always see that violent conflicts use weapons of crude propaganda and advocacy. However, with the advent of technologies, new dictions are coined like fake news, deepfake and cheapfake, and these dictions are the latest tools to make truth the first casualty of war. Aeschylus in his plays justified that deception is a weapon that can be used during wartime for achieving a “just cause”. Therefore, we can say that Aeschylus is the first writer of the script of war propaganda that is being used since his time by martial powers.
Watching western media as well as Russian media covering Ukraine’s war, one can understand that when war is declared, truth is the first victim. The western democracies have banned Russian Television (RT) stating that it is a propaganda tool of the Kremlin but Fox, CNN, BBC, Sky News and all other western televisions are free to air whatever they wish to. The famous book by Phillip Knightley The First Casualty published in 1986 indicates that when independent journalism is not possible on battlefields then no truth comes out from the war zones. Since the US-led invasion of Iraq, only embedded journalism is possible in war zones for providing news of their choice. Now fake news, cheapfake, deepfake have taken the lead in the world where gadgets like smartphones have become the first choice of getting information. Social media hashtags of the Ukraine war can bring thousands of fake photos and audio and video pieces providing “just cause” of producers. The majority of images, audio and videos available on social media are pieces of so-called cheapfake media that have been crudely manipulated, edited, mislabeled or improperly contextualised in order to spread disinformation.
War is not about winning and losing in the 21st century rather it is a business and a tug of war between profit and loss. The idea of right and wrong is blurry because it is subjective to time and space. For instance, the weaponisation of Ukrainian civilians is a heroic act done by necessity to save motherland and at a different place, in a different situation, Palestinian civilians’ effort to defend themselves is always being defamed as armed resistance or even terrorism against a sovereign country.
There is no universal truth, anything and everything can be utilised as per convenience. The idea of valour, motherland, heroism and even the most chanted slogan of humanity has different meanings. The ruthless murder of the proverb that “lie can never pace” has provided multiple trajectories where lie can pace. A lie can not only walk around but can also be presented in a way that the intelligent scholarly minds of the time feel comfortable in advocating and reinforcing the lies.
A cry, a passing armoured vehicle, a blast and a fire in a weapon depot can be projected by using digital media. It all depends on how tactful and how resourceful one can be and how intelligently one can use cheapfake.
All the ethical rules of social and print media have clear visibility to choose what side to take and then block their vision to let go of everything that suits their narrative. It is important to remember that social media tools are operated by those who have already pledged their allegiance to warmongers, and these warmongers are known as law-abiding citizens of civilised sovereign countries.
War is a test book situation to understand and analyse how truth at one place is a lie at another place, how right and wrong are engineered illusions, and how truth is fishing in dark. Law is not blind, and order is synonymous with chaos. Motherland, safety, possession and belonging are relative terms. Everything depends upon power structure and everybody is a player in an unending monopoly game.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2022.
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