“The first casualty of war is truth” – and innocence (and room service)

THE USUAL WARTIME QUOTE “The first casualty of war is truth.”        Attributed to U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson (1866-1945)         (In fact, there’s no record of him saying it.)

PEACETIME COUNTERQUOTE “Experience shows that the first casualty of peace is such wisdom, if any, as has been learned in war.”        Richard Henry Tawney (1880-1962)        British economic historian        Why Britain Fights (1941)

VIETNAM COUNTERQUOTE “The first casualty of war is innocence.”        Poster tagline for Oliver Stone’s film Platoon (1986)

NEW ZEALAND COUNTERQUOTE “The second casualty of war is human rights.”        Jonathan Boston        New Zealand Votes: The 2002 General Election (2003)

IRAQ WAR COUNTERQUOTE “The first casualty of war is room service.”        An unnamed journalist’s comment on lack of hotel staff in Bagdad during the Gulf War, in Jason Burke’s On the Road to Kandahar (2006)

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