Fourteen British troops are injured by a mob of 500 Iraqi protesters throwing petrol bombs, rocks and at least one grenade.
It’s is with some pride that I learn of the calm, measured response of the British troops. After calling for reinforcements, the crowd was dispersed with plastic bullets and tear gas. No Iraqi’s killed. No instant martyrs created. No familial promises of vengeance.
Nice one, Brits! 
DAMN ARSE BOLLOCKING CRAP!
(I lost another thread to the bloody hamsters. They seem to know when I don’t ‘save’ the post)
Anyway. I was and still am against the war. But I was quite impressed with the friendly calm, measured attitude of the brits compared to the Americans [soldiers].
The American ‘no messing, tough love’ attitude had it’s place.
Um, did I miss some incident involving US troops mowing down swaths of protesters?
I will admit that the news I watched was probably biassed. But the footage of American troops involved them screaming at men with their arms behind their heads and manhandling old women. While the footage of british troops showed them just being quite calm and friendly.
The news media made a big deal of the difference and the fact that American troops are ‘failing the hearts and minds’ battle.
I note from the MOD website for Operation Telic (http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/index.htm) that the troops injured by the grenade were from several different units, so it looks like a fairly scratch force (Royal Artillery, The Light Infantry, and the Royal Military Police).
My WAG is that the British are fairly well-trained in staying relatively “together” under a shower of crap of this type, as a result of long experience in Northern Ireland (whatever the rights and wrongs of military presence there may be!).
Even if the present-day squaddies in Basra are too young to have pulled time in Ulster during the real troubled times, chances are their older NCOs (and certainly their officers) in charge of training will have experienced similar situations in the past.
And while a baton round can easily kill (as has happened in NI), yeah, I’d have to agree that this showed good discipline to keep the head, and not over-react with heavy firepower (i.e. “real” bullets); good news that no-one was badly hurt on either end of the demo.
Can’t be easy to keep it together when you see your buddies covered in flames–however briefly. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/23/iraq.main/index.html
I saw this on BBC. I also read an interview with British soldiers who had seen it on BBC, too, and who said it was overblown. They explained that the difference was in Basra vs. Tikrit, and suggested that if they were in the “Sunni Triangle” they’d have to be much more wary, too.
I’ve also read numerous stories of US soldiers very much involved in the hearts and minds campaign. One:
Which is not in any way to diminish the soldier’s impressive restrait. My probable reaction is reason #412 why I’d make a lousy soldier.