Lets see... first of all, the Americans were never very unified. In the north, the British recieved huge amounts of help from loyalists in a number of states, and some of the finest British units in the war came from there. In the south, a civil war was fought, and the only reasons the British weren't as well supplied with troops from that area as the Americans were was similar to the north; unlike the British, the American patriots constantly harassed, humiliated, and in some cases, slaughtered outspoken loyalists. There are many instances of this, ranging from forcing awful things on loyalists, to tar and feathering, to "Light Horse" Harry Lee commiting some of the worst atrocities of the war, and all sorts of abuse. The loyalist population, although about a third, was much less active, and although the British hung organizers and soldiers when possible, they did not adequetly protect their supporters. It is also commonly thought that by the end of the war America was unified; it wasn't, many left to go to Canada, or remained British supporters, even by 1812. As for plenty of atrocities on both sides, some, but not actually all that bad. British officers had a tendency to severely punish bad soldiers who abused civilians, and both sides showed a fair amount of restraint with each others men. There are, as always, a few atrocities to speak of, but not nearly as many as the American view would have one believe, and the majority of which I am aware were done by Americans. As for why the war is immoral, there are a number of factors. Firstly, I personally believe all wars are immoral, but, in fact, I believe the revolution was worse than most because it was, like all wars, driven by wealthy people who wanted more of various things, and impatient thinkers who wanted to experiment, but unlike most wars, was masked as a huge glorious battle for freedom. The goals of getting more land from Indians, freeing ourselves of English taxes, which, although possibly unfair, were legitimate, and a change of leadership which wasn't intended to change nearly as much as it did, are not noble like people tend to make them seem today. We were plenty "self determining", and the British taxes had numerous benefits for us, such as paying for a war that stopped us from being slaughtered by French armed Indians. One can hopefully see that the roots of the American revolution were serving the interests of a few people, same as pretty much any other war.
[This message has been edited by Sealcow (edited 11-06-2005 @ 09:53 PM).]