O "Bagdá Blogger" que agora tem uma coluna no Guardian foi até Basra e comenta as diferenças na atitude entre os invasores britânicos e americanos. Além da presença menos agressiva e covarde (veja notas)...
In Baghdad that gun would be pointing either at the car right behind the military vehicle or at the sidewalk, scanning the buildings. But the British guy wasn't pointing at anything, he was just looking around with the gun turned in, at an angle that would have shot him in the foot if it had gone off by accident. You appreciate this only after you have been driving behind an American Humvee and praying that your car doesn't backfire or make strange noises, because the US soldier has that gun pointing right at you.
... os britânicos estão usando algumas tradições locais para tentar evitar derramento de sangue desnecessário, mesmo depois do assassinato de 6 policiais militares em al-Majar al-Kabir na semana passada. No sul do Iraque, quando um membro de um clan é morto, um dos modos evitar uma série de assassinatos por vingança é acertar as coisas com dinheiro. O conceito é chamado de "Fasil".
During a wedding celebration, two young men fire celebratory shots into the air. A British patrol happens to be near by, they think they have a couple of Fedayeen shooting at them. Bang bang, the Iraqis are dead.
The British take the bodies to the hospital, and after conducting an investigation they find out they were not Fedayeen, a mistake has been made. So the next day two British officers, two Iraqi lawyers and a translator go to the hospital and ask how the locals deal with this sort of thing. The concept of "Fasil" or blood money is explained to them. A couple of days later the word spreads that the British have paid 15 million Iraqi dinars in blood money to the families of the two Iraqi men. Further bloodshed was stopped. Perfect.
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