It's well established that truth is the first casualty in war. But in this one, truth didn't even make it onto the battlefield to be gunned down. It was mugged in a back alley well before the opening salvo.

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This is evident in the contradictory statements from Washington over the justification for the attacks and whether it was Israel that forced America's hand or the other way around.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday it was Israel's plan to attack Iran that compelled the US to pre-emptively strike before Tehran retaliated against its bases in the region. Then President Trump said the opposite. If anything, he told the media, the US compelled Israel.

Iran's nuclear capability? Obliterated last June. An imminent threat now.

Regime change? One of Israel's primary goals, according to Israel's Netanyahu. Nothing of the sort, says US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Boots on the ground? No way one day, not ruling it out the next.

The Strait of Hormuz? Open, says the Pentagon. Closed, says Tehran, backed up by marine tracking and the surging oil price.

Who provided the precise location of the ayatollah? The CIA claimed it was the US. No, it was Mossad, the Israelis insist, sources claiming the spy agency had hacked into Tehran's traffic cameras to keep an eye on him.

If the allies can't get their stories straight - and nor can the main players in Washington - believing anything becomes a stretch.

The fog of this particular war is made worse by the paucity of verifiable information from the ground. Iran is to blame for this because it has shut down the internet. Unlike the Gaza war, where we saw in harrowing detail the effects of constant bombardment, there's very little visual material out of Iran. The aftermath of the strike on the girls' school in Minab was one of few exceptions.

Getting a sense of progress is also next to impossible. Unlike the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the invasion of Afghanistan before it, where progress was measured in territory gained and cities captured, there's no such metric in an aerial war. All we see are grainy reconnaissance shots of installations being bombed in Iran or fire and plumes of smoke caused by retaliatory strikes on nearby countries. These tell us that the war is widening but not much more.

There's no Peter Arnett in downtown Tehran describing in detail the the onslaught as he did in Baghdad during the first Gulf War, the sound of explosions and air raid sirens in the background.

There's not even a Comical Ali, as there was in 2003 when Coalition forces bore down on Saddam Hussein. At least with Comical Ali (real name Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf) you knew that the exact opposite of what he was claiming was the truth.

Ah, that elusive friend, truth.

Historians will search for it for years to come. They'll argue over whether the attack on Iran was legal, whether the US was played by Israel into embarking on another costly war or even whether the whole exercise was a mighty distraction from other troublesome problems such as the Epstein files, as some cynical cartoonists (including our own Broelman!) and commentators are already suggesting.

HAVE YOUR SAY: How will history judge the attack on Iran? Is it hard to believe anything out of Washington, Tel Aviv or Tehran when there's no foreign media in Iran? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- Australians are buying fewer cars but more electric models, with sales of the low-emission vehicles more than doubling in a month to set a record.

- White supremacists make up one in five people charged with terrorism offences in the past half-decade, with federal police recording an increase in crimes allegedly motivated by neo-Nazi ideologies.

- Ukraine can help Australia build up its own sovereign capabilities, its top diplomat in Canberra says, as the nation looks to attract businesses to take part in its reconstruction efforts.

THEY SAID IT: "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." - Buddha

YOU SAID IT: It's not just oil surging in price thanks to the wat in the Middle East. The cost of fertiliser is also spiking, meaning food is likely to get more expensive.

"I am worried about price increases due to the new war in the Middle East," writes Lee. "I accept that farmers will need to increase wholesale prices to ensure their own viability. We need or farmers. I am more concerned about the inevitable price gouging from the supermarkets, which they will try and blame farmers for but is really just about increasing their profits."

Emily is worried: "What is likely to happen in the bush? To those of us in small towns and those who live on the land?"

"Surprised if we don't have stock piles in fertiliser so as to overcome supply chain blockages. Guaranteed that all links in that chain will bump up prices as a windfall even before the actual situation is evident. With half the US Navy stationed or floating within a stone's throw and Iran being defanged by the day I suspect the strait will be in action soon. Check out the proposed Ben Gurion Canal as a future alternative."

Arthur writes: "There will be a spike in inflation which will hit the low income earners and mortgage holders the most. The wealthy will continue to get richer while the poor get poorer and inflation will accelerate the most unfair wealth distribution in Australia and elsewhere."

"This is a direct result, not of Trump taking out a regime that actually was a threat to the world, but is because of a blind determination to destroy Australia's self reliance and make the country part of the global economy," writes Murray. "Globalism seems like a great idea until there's a conflict somewhere, and the fallout is like a rock thrown in a pond. The ripples go around the world and we have $10 lettuces. And that's the least of the problems. We have huge amounts of natural resources which we are not allowed to utilise. We sell them for next to nothing to others to benefit from, while we await oil shock and more stress at the checkout."

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