“Truth is the first casualty of war.” The statement has been attributed to many different writers including Senator Samuel Johnson, but the first such statement is attributed to Aeschylus a Greek tragic dramatist who lived between 525 BC and 426 BC. Since then, the world has witnessed the truth of the statement. For centuries we depended on the word of governments to give us information about battles, deaths, and war.
Today with the 24-hour news cycle, we are witnessing the horrors of war in real time.
It was clear to the world that Hamas had chosen to attack innocent children, babies, women, and men in their vicious slaughter of Israel residents. They did not attack military facilities.
It was the largest single day killing of Jews since the Holocaust of WWII. But since that fateful day, news outlets have focused their cameras on the Gaza strip and Israel’s daily attacks on the northern portion of Gaza with air strikes and bombardments. At least 1537 Palestinians have been killed including 447 children and an additional 6,000 Palestinians have been wounded by the assault of Israel.
In both Israel and Gaza, the innocent victims of this war are ordinary common citizens. It is with sadness that I write this. It is with sadness that a 6-year-old Arab US citizen was killed by a man because of his race. It is with sadness that Jewish schools in Toronto and many US cities had to have police protection put in place so students could attend classes. It is with sadness that almost 600 citizens of Israel and nations around the world are being held as hostages by Hamas. It is with sadness that over one million Palestinians have been ordered to leave their homes in northern Gaza and more to southern Gaza. It was with sadness that Israel turned off the power, water and food supplies in their siege of Gaza.
We watched as Russia kidnapped children from Ukraine in the beginning of the Russia invasion of Ukraine. We witnessed the destruction of apartment buildings and homes in Ukraine killing thousands of citizens.
All of this is troubling. Instant news brings all these atrocities into our homes. Newspapers, radio, television, social media do not permit us to look away. But with all this information on death and killing are we becoming complacent and inured to war, hate, and killing? We shouldn’t be, but I fear we are becoming more comfortable watching the wars taking place around us. Maybe the first casualty we now have is that war and killing no longer bother us.
