We read war through numbers—
how many killed, how much land taken, how many billions lost.

But war is not a game of statistics.
War is an equation of power, and in that calculation, human beings become expendable assets.

Headlines don’t say this—
the first casualty of war is truth.
Each side calls its bombs “defense” and the other side’s grief “propaganda.”
Truth becomes a luxury. In wartime, the state does not carry truth—it deploys it.

Headlines don’t say this—
people lose their moral compass slowly.
First, the enemy is a human being.
Then a “target.”
Then a “number.”

The person who once said, “Killing innocents is wrong,”
now says, “In war, some collateral damage is inevitable.”
Morality doesn’t die—
the state simply places it on leave.

Headlines don’t say this—
war divides empathy by nationality.
Our children are martyrs.
Theirs are collateral damage.
Tears speak the same language, but when the flag changes, so does their value.

Headlines don’t say this—
war teaches people to fear thinking.
Questioning becomes treason.
Doubt becomes betrayal.
The state demands loyalty, not intelligence—
because people who think are difficult to rule.

Headlines don’t say this—
war makes cruelty habitual.
At the first body, we tremble.
By the tenth, we scroll while sipping tea.
Cruelty is not born—it becomes normal through repetition.

Headlines don’t say this—
those who survive are never the same.
They return home, yes—
but trust does not return,
security does not return,
and most terrifying of all—
the ability to imagine a future does not return.

If Machiavelli were here, he might say—
war can be necessary for the state.
But if the state forgets that the true cost is paid by human beings,
it may survive—
yet not for its people,
but by using them.

After war, maps change.
But what changes quietly—
without a headline—
is the human being inside the human being.

What People Lose in War — The Things That Never Make the Headlines

Sajid R Rahman