"The reporters can only investigate where they are allowed to go. Embedding has been a very successful way to control access to information. The DoD is to be congratulated. The journalists who went out as independents deserve a lot of credit."

As far as I know embedding is at point in time is not available as an option to reporters. You say reporters can only investigate where they are allowed to go. Allowed by whom?
As far as I know, the press in Iraq could be characterized as being in a huge boom cycle- a bubble that undoubtively will evenually burst [months, years, decades- who knows], because the growth is simply "unreasonably" fast. How anyone can characterize this as lack of access, compared to a regime with "handlers" and Baghdag Bob is a bit puzzling.

"Tell me again about access to water being a luxury and Iraqis being spoiled brats for expecting it. I got a good laugh out of that the first time."
Iraq before we entered, was not a country with easy access to water and constant uninterrupted power. Even picking any time during Saddam's rule and general standards of living were poor- though not for Saddam and other elites, but for the general population.

Now, take any city in the US which will have a functioning infrastructure, put a few hundred people in the city that want to disrupt the power and water. The lights will go off, the water will be interrupted- it's not hard to do. It's not a "defendable" target, the only solution is to get these few hundred people. It's not a politically viable thing to do, but if you are simply a evil person, it could be fairly entertaining, and might help fill your "own personal power vacuum"- it beats torturing small animals.