Today, of course, the United States finds itself in much the same position as Britain in 1781. Distracted and diminished by an irrelevant, costly and probably unwinnable war in Iraq, America could ultimately find itself challenged by countries like China and India.

Decius wrote:

This is an interesting perspective on the American Revolutionary War that you don't hear often over here.

Eh. This piece struck me as more than a little bit forced. The US may be like Britain, but Iraq is not the American colonies. Does the author mean to imply that Iraq will rise to become a superpower? And what of comments like this:

If the Whig opposition had not had the moral courage and vision to accept defeat ... today the people of India would be speaking either French or Portuguese.

This strikes me as rather insulting to Brazil.

The analogy breaks down almost immediately:

... by finally accepting defeat in what at that time was a relatively unimportant part of the world ...

So is he suggesting that Iraq/Iran is "a relatively unimportant part of the world" today?

RE: The defeat that made Britain great - International Herald Tribune