IN war, truth is the first casualty, observed Aeschylus, the father of tragedy in classical Greek drama. It remains cogent today under the much denser fog of war.
The conflict is raging on two fronts: in the battlefields and the wider arena of global perception. As the deadly bombs and missiles fly, the blitz to sway influence is equally intense.
The opposing sides project their versions of events, carefully contrived to deliver set narratives to maintain support and cognition of “victories”.
The fog is further intensified by censorship, especially in Israel and the United States, with media restrictions making it difficult to verify information.
Both countries impose strict controls on what can be published, often preventing journalists from sharing details about missile impacts or military operations.
On Monday, Planet Labs, a satellite imaging firm based in California, notified its clients of an indefinite restriction on satellite images from Iran and the neighbouring conflict zones at the request of the US government.
The restriction was retroactively established as of March 9 and replaces the earlier 14-day publication delay.
Commercial satellite images had previously shown the consequences of attacks, including damage to American military facilities such as the US’ Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain.
In Israel, the military imposes strict regulations on local and international media. Journalists are barred under the threat of imprisonment from publishing locations of missile impacts, military operations, intelligence matters and visuals exposing weaknesses.
Many journalists also practise self-censorship, often aligning their reporting with government narratives to avoid repercussions.
This has led to a situation where the media limits dissemination of information that could be deemed a security threat – in other words, end up acting more as public relations tools.
This contributes to an increasingly opaque fog under which reliable information is scarce, complicating the understanding of the ongoing conflict.
As such, the trustworthiness of news coverage is highly questioned, especially with significant disparities between the mainstream Western media and the alternative media.
A classic example is the story of two American airmen who were dramatically rescued after their fighter jet was shot down over Iran last week.
US President Donald Trump claimed during a White House press conference on Monday that the mission to save the downed airmen was “one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat searches – I guess you would call it a search and rescue mission – ever attempted by the military.”
Trump said that after the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet was shot down, the pilot was located and rescued by a helicopter crew, which faced gunfire at very close range.
The second airman, a weapon systems officer, remained missing in Iran’s mountainous terrain but was also successfully retrieved the next day under an operation involving more than 150 aircraft, he added.
Trump described it as a “risky decision” as the US could have ended up with “100 dead as opposed to one or two.”
According to him, the officer was quite badly injured and stranded in an area “teeming with terrorists”, but he followed his training and began climbing toward a higher altitude to evade capture, scaling cliff faces, treating his own wounds and contacting US forces to transmit his location.
“In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America’s military descended on the area, engaged the enemy, rescued the officer, destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind,” Trump said.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), scoffed at the claims.
In an article, it highlighted the inconsistencies of the “Hollywood-style” narrative, noting that the story was “overly complicated and dramatic”, from the infiltration into Iranian territory, tracking the pilot, facing technical difficulties, and then having to carry out follow-up operations.
It questioned the condition of the pilot, who was said to be seriously injured, noting the absence of clear visual evidence or documentation.
The agency also expressed significant doubt about the fate of the crew member who was reportedly rescued, and suggested the possibility that the official US narrative could later shift to “a rescue attempt was made, but the pilot died.”
Western media agencies claimed the operation was successful, but acknowledged serious obstacles, including damage to rescue aircraft, which nearly trapped the special forces inside Iranian territory and forced the US military to destroy its own assets to prevent sensitive technology from falling into enemy hands.
Iran’s version of the drama was more focused on the colossal cost of the operation with widespread circulation of images of the destroyed aircraft.
As Defence Security Asia aptly headlined it: “US$2 Billion Burned in Iran: America Saves Two F-15E Airmen But Loses Aircraft in Its Costliest Rescue Mission Ever”.
It noted that the US lost the F-15E, at least two Hercules C-130J Combat King II rescue aircraft, one MH-6 Little Bird helicopter or possibly two of them, an A-10 Thunderbolt II and multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones, while two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were damaged along with several other aircraft.
The article noted that analysts believe the total may ultimately exceed US$2bil (RM8.05bil) when the destroyed aircraft, emergency deployments, precision munitions, support assets and longer-term operational consequences are taken into consideration.
It underlined the strategic message that emerged from the operation, which was even more damaging.
“For weeks, Washington had insisted that American and Israeli forces had achieved near-total air superiority over Iran during Operation Epic Fury.
“The loss of an F-15E deep inside Iranian territory, followed by the destruction of multiple American rescue aircraft stranded in Iran, has instead raised serious questions about the survivability of US air power in a highly contested environment.”
Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this quote from George Orwell: “All the war propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
