[Polybius]

Now let me see, The Brits are liked in southern Iraq. The Americans are adored by the Kurds in northern Iraq. But the Americans are so much chopped liver acording to the article.

The author has not yet figured out that Baghdad was the center of Baathist power but that Basra and the Kurdish north were subject to repeated Baathist massacres of their Shiite and Kurdish populations.

He is comparing the degree of danger of patrolling the streets of Berlin and the streets of Paris on the week that World War II ended.

[pragmatic_asian]

That's probably the most important factor, but we should also remember that America is the one blamed for sanctions, support of Saddam and civilian casualties unfair or not. The population of Iraq probably has been fed anti-American propaganda for years too. Brits are still remembered as honorable from the first time they colonized Iraq.