Funny: American Military Critique of British

From an article by Michael Evans on the UK's Times newpaper site. The article offers the following quote from retired U.S. Army Col. Pete Mansoor served two tours in Iraq and was executive officer to General Petraeus in Iraq. I've stuck comments in [backeted italics] within the following:

Only through a thorough appreciation of the mistakes it made in Iraq can the British Army turn defeat into victory as it fights the untidy wars of the early 21st century. It should not ... gloss over its recent experience in Iraq ... Although the conditions [in Afghanistan] are different, the lessons of Iraq are still relevant.

"The British failure in Basra was not due to the conduct of British troops, which was exemplary. It was, rather, a failure by senior British civilian and military leaders to understand the political dynamics ... in Iraq [as if the Bush admin had any clue of the Pandora's box it was opening by the invasion, the complete error about WMDs, and the disasterous disbanding of the Iraqi army which removed any ability to provide control while Iraq descended into chaos], compounded by arrogance that led to an unwillingness to learn and adapt [gosh! it took the Americans 5 years to learn that their smash & grab technique for "terrorist hunting" was simply recruiting more terrorist, so it is funny that they claim the Brits are 'slow to learn'], along with increasing reluctance to risk blood and treasure to conduct effective counter-insurgency warfare [treasure? wasn't it the US that kept dragging its heel about providing armour for its troops and when a soldier confronted Rumsfeld about this, Rumsfeld replied that 'You go to war with the army you've got, not with the army you wished you had' while at the same time taking longer to get armor to the troops than it did to build and launch 349 destroyers during WWII] ...

"British commanders attempted to cut deals with local Shia leaders to maintain the peace in southern Iraq [and what was the deal that the US made with the Sunni Awakening?], an accommodation that was doomed to failure since the British negotiated from a position of weakness.' [and the US deal with the Sunnis was from a position of strength? who are you kidding?]