IT’S a phrase that has become among the most iconic in our political discourse. Most attribute its origins to journalist Peter Arnett’s famous Vietnam dispatch for the Associated Press that included the much-misquoted quotation: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."
While the original use of the quote is perhaps a little more complex, it still rings true today especially in Ukraine where it would seem to underpin the contorted logic by which Russia goes about its war there.
