General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If your country was attacked, would you assist in ... [View all]LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)The European nations of the 18th century has very little good to say of the doctrines and strategies the colonial rebels utilized. The sniping and guerrilla tactics used by the colonialists were referred to as cowardly, without honor, and a debasement of civilized standards (though the colonials said the same of the Powhatan tribe when it wiped out 30% of white settlers in Virginia in the spring of 1622).
Colonial attacks on crown-friendly businesses, attacks on civilian loyalists (including tar-and-feathering-- almost a death sentence despite what we may learn from cartoons), systematic mob-violence and public demands of loyalty were more common than not.
Yet we celebrate those actions. I don't think that false equivalencies enter into it-- just that every nation-state wages war in a a manner it deems most efficient to its resources.