As journalists, we cannot control the actions of foreign leaders or our own lawmakers—many of whom have disappointed us this week with their decisions about the war—but we can prioritize the need to tell the truth, no matter how painful.

Horrifying allegations have been made by mainstream news outlets and on social media this week, Musa al-Gharbi, a sociologist at Stony Brook University, explains in his latest piece for The Nation. “For those who would like to minimize unnecessary suffering and death, it is critical to respond to information warfare with solid facts,” he urges. “Truth, as they say, is the first casualty of war.”