A new take on the Revolutionary War

John O'Farrell is one of my favourite columnists in the Guardian. In his latest book, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, his biting humour is displayed in the description of the Revolutionary War from a British standpoint.

The first War on Terror lasted from 1775 to 1781. In the American colonies, local insurgents, hell bent on causing anarchy and destruction, began their cowardly attacks on the British peace-keeping forces. As the assassinations and bombings escalated, there were calls for the British government to withdraw the security forces, but despite being thousands of miles from home, the British army bravely refused to cut and run, trying instead to maintain the fragile peace so desperately desired by the vast majority of the peace-loving colonial settlers. In the warped mind of the extremists, they might have imagined themselves to be fighting some sort of 'heroic war of independence', but by any of the standards applied in the West today, the actions of the extremist militias was terrorism, pure and simple.

Ouch!