Reverse Chronological Order

I am curious as to why the author presents certain details of the war in a reverse chronological order.

The article opens with the firing of Israeli rockets into Lebanon. Only thereafter does the author note that Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel first. Similarly, the author cites various Israeli actions in 1982, 2006, and 2024, explaining only later that they were in response to preceding Hezbollah’s aggression.

The heart of the article, the LAU students’ plight in the midst of a war, would be just as poignant had the author stated the actions of the various parties involved in the war in the order in which they actually happened, e.g., Hezbollah did this, so Israel did that.

It’s a nuance pervasive in the media today. Offering the reader one fact before another suggests some judgement on the relative significance of the facts. In this case, citing the response before the triggering event subtly minimizes Hezbollah’s provocation. It needlessly colors the real story, which is about how the students were impacted.

Sara Sill ’73
New York, NY