Thomas Friedman: Come the Revolution

Unfortunately, many Iraqis here are growing angry because so far our invasion has made their lives incomparably worse. They have lost food, drinking water and security. In every swamp or fetid pool of water, families are filling plastic containers with the sewage-tainted filth that is the closest they can now get to water.

"It would be O.K. if the invaders brought us water," said Munshid, a young man from Basra who, like others, did not want his full name used. "But so far they bring only thirst."

"The Americans are treating us like animals," a 35-year-old Basra resident named Muhammad complained, adding: "The soldiers are destroying the pictures of our president, and that's all they're doing."

One former army officer who was fleeing Basra with his wife and six children scoffed when I asked whether the invasion would bring improvements later. "I don't see any good result of it," he said with a tinge of bitterness.

It's no good for us to protest that this anger is premature and that the situation will improve. This anger is throbbing now, and it's as much of a threat to our invasion as suicide bombings. Yet the popular mood, at least here in the south, could turn around if the U.S. could just make life better. Most Iraqis I talk to don't seem passionately for or against the invasion; they just don't want their babies to die of sickness from filthy water.

That's why we desperately need to accelerate humanitarian efforts now, not after the war is over. Granted, it's a challenge because of a Catch-22: to distribute aid, we need security, and it's difficult to achieve security as long as people are outraged at the lack of assistance. But so far we have provided less aid and security in the areas we control than Saddam used to, and if this continues it will undermine our entire mission.