Y'all might want to do a little bit more research into how exactly we won our independence as a country as opposed to jizzing all over the Constitution.

Let's just say that we'd label ourselves terrorists.

How do you win a war in which you can't win a battle?

You cheat.

What was cheating back then?

Shooting officers.

And we did that in spades people.

It's cheating because in traditional warfare at the time most battles were fought in open fields where you stood in a line and shot at each other until one side broke and then you charged or you charged to get a line to break.

Because of how rigid the structure of warfare was, it made officers critical to organizing any movement. Disobeying your officer was a capital offense, as COs were trained to shoot soldiers for breaking.

Why was it not cool to shoot officers? Well, because officers were of a social strata above the common soldier. In fact, officers only really went to war to gain status and build private wealth. Alexander Hamilton desperately saw being an officer as a way to raise his station.

You could build a career as a military officer to be sure, but the military was nowhere near as professional as it is today or even WW1 era armies.

But in the revolutionary era, the common soldier was meant to feel the main brunt of casualties and not officers, after all, they had futures to look forward to and imagine the shame if you were killed by a commoner?

You may think I'm exaggerating but go look at dueling records from those eras.. stand-ins were needed all the time because you could only really duel with people of your own station, not people above or below you.

But Americans said FUCK THE RULES and ordered their regulars to fire on Captains and officers SPECIFICALLY knowing that the chaos that ensued would be beneficial.

They did this by springing traps, ambushes, and faux retreats but to be clear, they were breaking the rules.

You may say BUT IT'S WAR well how do you feel about using human shields? How do you feel about suicide bombers?

The concept of shooting officers may feel banal now but back then it was a LEGIT big deal. It was breaking serious rules.

And it's precedents like these that are both set and shredded in war, so let's stop acting like the USA has always been on the right side of history...

After all, the Viet Cong weren't the first people to use questionable methods to fight a gorilla war against a foreign invader.

If your response starts with, "But but but we were fighting for..." go back to the beginning of this thread and read it again because you're not listening to me.