“The best way to weaken one's enemy was to get him to believe that you were on his side.”

Source: The Tenth Circle

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book

Source: Dark Skye

§ 2
"Looking Back on the Spanish War" (1943)
Context: I have little direct evidence about the atrocities in the Spanish civil war. I know that some were committed by the Republicans, and far more (they are still continuing) by the Fascists. But what impressed me then, and has impressed me ever since, is that atrocities are believed in or disbelieved in solely on grounds of political predilection. Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence.

Source: Star of the Morning

Source: Catch-22 (1961)

Source: Empire of the Sun (1984), p. 6
Context: Real war was the thousands of Chinese refugees dying of cholera in the sealed stockades at Pootung, and the bloody heads of Communist soldiers mounted on pikes along the Bund. In a real war no one knew which side he was on, and there were no flags or commentators or winners. In a real war there were no enemies.

Part Eight “The Return”, Chapter v “Nonesuch”, Section 2 (p. 353)
(1987), BOOK TWO: THE FUGUE