Restraint - For those who

Restraint - For those who don't follow these things, the British have more successful experience at counterinsurgency warfare than anyone; in brushfire wars in Malaysia, Yemen, Northern Ireland and Oman, they literally wrote the book on the sort of "hearts and minds" operations that we'll need to master to make the liberation of Iraq work out.

And there are problems:

Monday’s checkpoint shootings were seen as a disaster for the coalition’s efforts to win Iraqi hearts and minds. Asked if they undermined attempts to court the local population, Colonel Chris Vernon, a British army spokesman, replied: “It does indeed, and if you were a civilian watching that you would interpret it in that way.”

The difference in approach was epitomised yesterday when the Royal Marines in four southern Iraqi towns swapped their helmets for berets as a sign of goodwill. American troops wear helmets at all times and checkpoint troops cover their faces with goggles and scarves.

US commanders are also said to have instructed their troops to adopt tougher tactics to weed out militiamen. “Everyone is now seen as a combatant until proven otherwise,” one Pentagon official is reported as saying before Monday’s checkpoint shooting.

British military sources spoke at length about the hard-won experience of UK troops from manning checkpoints and policing in Northern Ireland. “There is no doubt that with that experience, as well as in peace support operations in countries such as Bosnia, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, the British have learnt the art of restraint,” one source said.

We may be the best in the world at putting firepower on target - nobody else comes close. But the psychology of transitioning from war to peace is something at which the Brits are still the experts.

It's a little disturbing that this gulf exists.

Posted by Mitch at April 1, 2003 11:19 PM