Quote:
Originally posted by Chichio
No offence to the Brits, I think they are a great nation and great people. Their soldiers are very capable and do a great job. Comparing Basra and the south to the Sunni Triangle and Shi'a hot spots is not really a fair comparison. 
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Basra is the second largest city in Iraq, when American forces alienate the local population it does not surprise me in the least that the Iraq's begrudge them.
If someone came into my area, shooting up the place every other day, holding my neighbours up against walls and basically running roughshot over my customs and my religion (e.g frisking women etc.) killing people three streets down from me I'd be upset as well, which is probably what is fueling most Iraqi's into fighting in hotspots like Fallujah.
This coupled with the fact that a lot of people do not have a job, no electricity (turning on the generator is how 3 contractors lost their life, when they were abducted by terrorists) and there are problems with sanitation is beginning to turn the population against the U.S, they could fix half the problems with insurgents tomorrow if they just fixed a few of the services - however the Administration in it's wisdom turned down the rebuilding contracts unless you were involved in the war, so countries that could be in Iraq fixing things and helping stabilize the population are not being used - you will never fight insurgency whilst the conditions that produce insurgents exist.