New Delhi, May 14 -- I first 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 favourable light and make claims about ...