Iraq's new police force is refusing to wear the American-style baseball caps issued to them on grounds of fashion.
Under the Saddam regime, police officers wore black berets and olive green military clothing. Now they seem unhappy with the suggested change in uniform.
"We just don't look good in them," said Jassim Mohammed at a police station in Baghdad. "Iraqi heads are a different shape to American heads and the brim gets in the way. We think we look silly."
Police officer Ahmed Ismail, who like his colleague Mohammed stood bare-headed in protest in the baking midday sun, said: "We demand something more traditional, like helmets, which will give us protection and make us feel like policemen."
The fact that the administration is responding to the request by withdrawing thousands of baseball caps already handed out and issuing a compromise beret is an indication of just how cautious the US-led coalition is of appearing to foist American ways on the Iraqi public.
"There was a complaint by a number of the Iraqi police that they didn't like the new headgear - baseball caps," said former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, the occupation administration's director of interior.
"That has been changed. They are going to have blue berets that match the colour of their pants."