Retired General Sir Michael Rose, a former United Nations commander and counter-insurgency expert, examines two wars, more than 200 years apart, to demonstrate the unsettling parallels between two small groups of determined insurgents who were determined to defeat a superpower. While acknowledging the obvious differences between the American Revolution and the current situation in Iraq, there are a number of striking military similarities, most notably the failure of the British in 1783 and the Americans today to resolve the dilemma of counter-insurgency warfare: how to isolate and defeat the enemy without alienating the local population.