The Internet is spreadig in Iraq. NYT Link. At this point (now that the Court Clown is gone), it'll probably do more for freedom in that country than all our troops combined. Then again, it could bring a lot of trouble. Marshall McLuhan said the red hot medium of the radio incited people to revolution and uprisings, while the cool medium of TV calmed them down. I'm guessing McLuhan would call the Internet a cool medium--since it engages at least two, if not three, senses at a time--but I've never seen a good McLuhan-like analysis of the issue (if anyone knows of one, by the way, please email me).
Few people on earth have more incentive to communicate online (and indoors) than Iraqis, who risk their lives every time they go out for a quart of milk. The Internet can also be a way to get around the rising Islamization of everyday life. Young people caught flirting on the street even in Baghdad are sometimes chastised or even beaten by self-proclaimed Islamists, but no one can stop them on the Web. "If you look at the chat rooms, it is mostly young guys and girls," Mr. Ali said.
But Islamists and insurgents have their own uses for the Web. Diatribes against the American presence, along with detailed bomb-making instructions and tributes to the latest suicide bombers, appear regularly on Iraqi chat rooms and Web sites.
The total number of people using the Internet, like most Iraqi statistics, is partly guesswork. There are 215,000 subscribers on the state-owned Internet company, but that does not include the Internet cafe users, who are probably far more numerous, said Eva Wohn, a legal adviser to Iraq's Communications Ministry on telecommunications issues.
