CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.
Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial‘s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.
I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.
To be fair, he was actually set up. It was the commentator who drew the parallel between these two ridiculously divergent wars and asked him for similarities. I mean, we were a subject nation under the UK prior to the revolution. We were technically British citizens. Not so much for your average Iraqi. We went into their country and toppled their government, fairly elected or not, and not exactly at their request. And from my history books, I don't recall too many governments back then being "sensitive" to the needs of their colonists or subject nations. I seriously doubt it was ever a real possibility, given the times. That's like saying the ancient Romans could've avoided civil collapse by being a bit more sensitive to the needs of their provinces and neighboring nations. An interesting idea, but not exactly workable in practice.
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