U.S. Troops Jump-Start New Iraqi Economy by Allowing Some Iraqis to Sell Freely Supplied Water to Other Iraqis

Well sure, Millar, I'm not trying to pretend that there aren't always going to be short-term emergencies that call for "best we can do" thinking. But given that the US's committment to humanitarian assistance here is very deeply in question -- and given that, you know, it's not like anyone asked us to invade in the first place -- this doesn't seem like a very good route to go down. I definitely see your point, but the selling of humanitarian aid is at worst reprehensible, at best really shady, and considering that this sort of thing hardly even gets reported on I'm not sure who exactly trusts the US to be all high-minded and careful about establishing proper distribution once it's safer. Mistakes like this tend to calcify, usually out of good old-fashioned laziness.