Most of will us remember this incident, considered an American faux pas at the time:

An angry crowd of Iraqi Shiites prevented troops of the US 101st Airborne Division from approaching the Ali Mosque, a sacred Shiite site in the town of Najaf, according to footage aired by CNN cable news.

Some 200 civilians shouting in Arabic and waving their arms in "keep out" motions, blocked a US convoy from entering the street leading to the mosque, recognizable by its prominent golden dome.

The CNN correspondent said the US troops were heading for the residence of the local Shiite ayatollah, who had agreed to meet with representatives of the US forces but asked first that his home be protected.

Shortly after the tense standoff, Iraqis revealed that it was something of a misunderstanding:

U.S. troops were arranging a meeting with the mosque's cleric who had issued a decree urging Muslims to remain calm and not hinder U.S. forces.

He asked them for protection, and they moved toward his home.

But the crowd mistook that as U.S. troops about to storm the mosque, or target the cleric.

"City, okay ... mosque, no," said one Iraqi.

Commander Chris Hughes now faced a volatile standoff.

"Everybody smile. Don't point your weapons at them," he told his troops.

The biggest resentment for this crowd was the thought of U.S. soldiers carrying guns into the mosque. That's exactly what the Fedayeen had been doing for years.

Misunderstanding or not, it made an impression. If Allied troops have worked diligently - to the point of obsession - towards anything, it has been an almost obeisant courtesy to Islam in Iraq. Islamic clerics are uneasy about the very presence of foreign soldiers on their soil; this has rubbed off on congregations and crowds. Muslim pride, intact after two decades of Saddam, is something the Allies are loathe to offend (emphasis mine):

While accepting responsibility for maintaining security throughout Iraq, U.S. officials said U.S. troops have avoided patrolling in the immediate vicinity of the holy sites of Najaf and Karbala out of respect for the Shi'a faith. They described the Najaf mosque as a good example of a "soft target" for terrorists seeking to create turmoil in Iraq similar to the U.N. compound in Baghdad.

Compounding the tragedy is the predictable chorus blaming American fecklessness for the attack. That's absurd. Mosques became "soft" targets the moment they were declared off-limits to Allied soldiers. That was the Iraqis' demand, and one they may soon withdraw - but their demand nonetheless. Ralph Kinney Bennett described a coward's heavy-payload weapon of choice: the car bomb. He wrote the article, presciently, a day before the Ali bombing. As Bennett explains, point-defense is the only physical protection against suicidal bomb-drivers. Invasive intelligence-gathering - those unpopular raids and roundups - is the only real solution.

So which will it be? The Coalition Provisional Authority can't be accused of insensitivity to Islam and an inability to safeguard Iraq in the same breath.