Here is an article in todays
BBC News and the gist of it is we are failing in Iraq and the Brits are performing better and why. Granted, you'd have more success in Basra than Baghdad no matter who you were but it still brings up many good points.
The first time I was in a crowd of Iraqis, they were chanting a rather peaceful demand: "Give us security, give us jobs."
Over a very few days, the guarded welcome that greeted the "liberation" turned sour as the invaders blundered in, protected only themselves and a few key locations like the oil ministry, and stood to one side as looters had the time of their lives.
Down with the British in Basra it's all a bit different. I am still incarcerated - but in an armoured Land Rover. And we stop here and there, and get out, and talk to people. Out on patrol the British soldiers sling their helmets from their belts and wear soft hats and buy cans of Coke from street stalls. Softly, softly.
British troops have adopted a "softly, softly" approach in Basra
Since the Moqtada al-Sadr uprising in August was suppressed, Basra has been pretty quiet. Brigadier Andrew Kennet believes that "softly, softly" pays off. He told me "I did not raze Basra to the ground, but I could have done." And he says he received a delegation of local people thanking him for targeting the insurgents and not punishing the whole population.
US marines loomed over the mostly middle-aged demonstrators with pistols and rifles pointing straight at their increasingly resentful faces. I witnessed this deadly shift take place.