I still don’t trust the government. Obviously defending yourself is justified war. For example Ukraine fighting Russia. But there’s been many documented cases of Ukrainian propaganda outright lying. They are not unique so I am not trying to single them out - there are many many many examples in modern times and historical. One of the most famous examples in the Ukrainian war was the “Ghost of Kyiv”, early on into the war.

They came up with the idea of a legendary ace fighter pilot that was going around and shooting down a bunch of Russian planes. However that pilot never existed. The government even acknowledged a few months later, after this idea had become viral and spread around everywhere - effectively already accomplishing its purpose - that it was a fabrication.

This is sort of what I mean. During war, propaganda goes off the charts. There’s a fog of war and the government uses that as a tool to totally flood people with fake knowledge. And sure, you might argue that it’s justified because they are trying to raise their population’s morale and potentially lower the morale of the enemy - but I’m a guy who wants to know the truth. So I don’t trust governments when it involves any military action.

They may be telling the truth so I don’t discount it entirely but I’m immediately skeptical and will try to confirm using sources that aren’t directly from the government.