Footnote to the preceding

This is also from the Sunday Telegraph:

British defence chiefs have warned United States military commanders in Iraq to change their rules for opening fire or face becoming bogged down in a terrorist war for a decade or more.

During a visit by senior British officers to British troops in Iraq, the British officers tried to explain to their American counterparts that they had learned through bitter experience that in

post-war counter-insurgency operations it paid to adopt a low-key and less aggressive stance.

American officers were told that when the British Army had made mistakes ... the political and military consequences had been disastrous.

The US uses what's called "force protection," under which troops can open fire with everything they've got if they feel they are in danger. The UK contingent uses a "graduated response" that seeks to use minimum force.

One British officer said he tried to explain that US tactics were "alienating the civil population and could lengthen the insurgency by a decade."

The response? "[T]he US troops just laughed."