The paper reported verbatim the comments of Colonel Tanner, chief of staff with the British divisional HQ in Basra: "We experienced real difficulty in dealing with the American military and civil organizations who, partly through arrogance and partly through bureaucracy, dictate that there is only one way: the American way. Despite our so-called 'special relationship', I reckon that we were treated no differently to the Portuguese." [The Colonel should have remembered that Britain also has a historic relationship with the Portuguese…]

"I realize now that I am a European, not an American, "the Colonel continued. "We managed to get on better militarily and administratively with our European partners and indeed at times with the Arabs than with the Americans. Europeans chat to each other, whereas dialogue is alien to the U.S. military [and not just because they spell the word differently!].

"They need to reintroduce dialogue as a tool of command," the Colonel concluded, "because, although it is easy to speak to Americans face-to-face and understand each other completely, dealing with them corporately is akin to dealing with a group of Martians. If it isn't on the PowerPoint slide, it doesn't happen."

So the Colonel found out the hard way. But his implied attitudes towards other 'aliens' also show that a different cultural perspective is a feature of the British mind as well as the American one.

If it had been available at the time, the Colonel should have read Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Bright-Sided. How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America. She opines that US can-do optimism has hardened into a suffocating culture of positivity that bears little relation to genuine hope or happiness.

The traditional psyche of US Americans is certainly under siege at the moment. But like anywhere else, the US is not just one but a series of cultures. We're looking into that at the moment and there's a book on the way… maybe for spring 2010.