There is and always will be a certain friction between military men of different nations attempting to approach a common end, and always the journalists covering it will tend to misinterpret statements made by the sundry parties involved.
But one thing is certain - the British troops (God bless 'em) are going to leave and the U.S. troops take over. What happens after that will not really test the applicability of British lessons in Northern Ireland, because the situation is far different at this point from the former or even from Basra itself three years ago. At this point all the community involvement in the world won't disarm the militias or soothe the trouble the Iranians have been merrily stirring up. Nice will have to be accompanied with not-nice, and it will be.
That said, I am very disappointed in this crude attempt at agitprop from the Times. The British troops deserve better. IMHO.