When one thinks of the cruelty, squalor, and futility of war — and in this particular case of the intrigues, the persecutions, the lies and the misunderstandings — there is always the temptation to say: “One side is as bad as the other. I am neutral.” In practice, however, one cannot be neutral, and there is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]

Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 5, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
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