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Afghan Government Turns To Iran For Internet
Barlaam writes "Renesys describes new evidence that the Iranian national telecommunications provider, DCI, is selling (uncensored?) Internet connectivity to customers in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan. 'The Internet connectivity outreach that we now see in the global routing tables seems like continuing evidence of Iran's long-term strategy: aggressively pursuing bilateral infrastructure and investment projects with its neighbors, in ways that will increase Iran's regional influence after the Americans have moved on.'"
As I've learned from television,
Hold it ... I found your problem.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Who else should be providing Internet access and building local business ties but neighboring countries? In this case, Iran looks like they're being a good neighbor. It's time to move beyond this prejudice against Iran. They've been the victim of US (and British) Corporate interests for numerous decades ... and if they dare to object or fight back, or otherewise look after their own interests,
they get demonized.
Recall that the CIA overthrew the Shah to protect interests of what became British Petroleum (BP):
The Iranian government of the time was just trying to control its own oil. Naturally, the people of
Iran weren't keen on the CIA coup. And US/British Corporates weren't happy with pushback on their plans
to steal all that oil wealth. So here we are ... Iran does something innocuous and the western establishment
press still wants to find a way to blame them for something (what?) while spinning the West as blameless.
It will, if you see the world through 20th century cold-war goggles. Filling a vacuum; political, military, economic, etc., was the name of the expansion game. This is simply more of the same. We could choose to see this move as ground lost to the communists... er, "Islamo-facists" (that is such and idiotic term...), or we could take a deep breath and realize that communication of that type is a thing to be exploited for commercial and cultural gain. Any bets?
Or possibly FOX News?
Just because the United States has an embargo in Iran, doesn't mean everyone else in the world has to have one as well. Besides, the mullahs in Iran don't particularly like Afghanistan either, they almost went to war with the Taliban in 1998. I thought this site was for "news for nerds", not biased political pieces bordering on propaganda.
Look at the map. When you are a landlocked country you get your connectivity from your neighbors. I suppose they could run cable all the way over to western Afghanistan from Pakistan. Would you want to sole-source all your connectivity from Pakistan? The other choices aren't worth mentioning.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Indeed, there is a country with a religious police, which outlaws practicing any religion but Islam, regularly executes citizens for moral crimes, and is a monarchal theocracy that does not hold elections and is accused of widespread human rights violations. They are about to close an arms deal worth 60 billion dollars to buy a fleet of the world's most advanced jet fighters and helicopters and related equipment. Their mosques preach violence against the west, and indeed, they send foreign fighters to Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Yemen to train for militant jihad.
That country is Saudi Arabia. And their supplier is the United States.
Iran, on the other hand, has a broken democracy, does in fact protect the right of religions to practice (but not to proselytize), and even has 30,000 practicing Jews and 300,000 practicing Christians with hundreds of churches and synagogues openly operating. Though they are subject persecution by the government, they are guaranteed a small number of seats in their representative government. The Ba'hai faith are widely seen as more persecuted than Jews or Christians, since they are officially outlawed.
Saudi Arabia for some reason has better public relations than Iran, but something tells me there's a reason for that.
Judging from history, our bizarre ethos of "the enemy of the enemy is my friend" has come back to bite us many times. Maybe there will come a day when, after some terrorist act committed by Saudi citizens, our foreign policy will change to a more reasoned stance when dealing with the complexities of Middle Eastern politics.
Oh wait, I forgot. Never forget... to forget.
This reminds me of some 1970s grafitti in Paris.
Someone had written "Mort Au Shah" and someone else had added
"et vive les souris"
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.