The United States and its coalition cannot afford to come up short or late when it comes to getting humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people they are claiming to liberate.
The first sizable relief convoy rolled into Iraq during Wednesday's sandstorm, three days after President Bush promised "massive amounts" of humanitarian aid would be delivered.
Missing such important self-imposed deadlines is unacceptable for the nation that paved its way for war with Iraq.
In the town of Basra alone, electricity and water supplies have been cut off for days while more than a million residents have been left to drink contaminated water and face the threat of diarrhea and cholera. The U.N. Children's Fund estimates that up to 100,000 Basra children under age 5 are at immediate risk of death.
U.S. leaders have blamed Saddam Hussein's regime for slowing the coalition's humanitarian efforts by placing mines in Iraq's most important port, Umm Qasr, in an effort to help defend his nation.
But pointing more fingers at Saddam won't accomplish what needs to be done. The United States and its coalition has an obligation to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq in conjunction with bombing campaigns.
On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice the United States is legally responsible for providing relief aid to Iraq.
And it has a responsibility to get it there soon.
U.N. humanitarian experts say Iraqis have about five weeks of food left. About 60 percent of Iraq's 22 million people are completely dependent on food handouts.
That is way the U.N. World Food Program has announced it would make its biggest single request for cash in its history - more than $1 billion to help feed the war-stricken nation for about six months.
U.N. leaders also have rightfully criticized Bush's $74.7-billion request to Congress to finance his war, which includes only $543 million in humanitarian aid - just more than half of the $1 billion the World Food Program said the country will need.
The United States cannot shortchange the people of Iraq in its liberation effort. If is does, it will not be completely helping the people it hopes to liberate.
And as Russia, France, Germany and China have worked to make clear that the onus is on the United States and Britain for pushing their war forward without the United Nations behind them. It will be up to coalition forces to pay for their mess and not the United Nations.
The United States and Britain need to pony up the bills and increase their efforts to get aid in Iraq behind their military advances.
We cannot shortchange the people whose country we are leveling. The United States needs to open up its checkbook and feed the children on the brink of starvation that it is trying to liberate.
