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Iraq Emerges From Isolation As Telecommunications Hub
New submitter jamaicaplain sends this quote from an article in the NY Times:
"Iraq, cut off from decades of technological progress because of dictatorship, sanctions and wars, recently took a big step out of isolation and into the digital world when its telecommunications system was linked to a vast new undersea cable system serving the Gulf countries. The engineers who designed and installed the cable that made shore in Al-Faw, near Basra, had to deal with an unusual number of challenges. There were more than 100 oil and natural gas pipelines to cross; stretches of shallow water where the cable had to be buried; and unexploded ordnance from the Iraq war that had to be avoided. ... Because of the crisis in Syria and the tensions over Iran, the possibility of routing traffic via Iraq has suddenly become more attractive to telecommunications operators. ... 'Iraq has a very strong strategic position to become a transit point for traffic between Europe and Asia.'"
I bet they cut the cable a month after getting their first DSL bill.
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After we spend billions arming and installing what can only be described as the Middle East's classiest dictator ever (ah the 80s), we were forced to spend years of diplomatic man hours sanctioning you senseless (the roaring 90s), then finally something like $1 trillion literally removing your precious, regional Hitler by force....How about a little thanks for (possibly) becoming the 4th most used telecommunications go-between for European and Asian (countries that matter) communication? We've already got our oil firms pumping all that pesky oil for you. Is there anything else we can do for you, ingrates?? You never had it so good.
Are those where they get oranges from?
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