From Salon.com. To the victor go the spoils:

On Wednesday, Darrel Issa, a Republican congressman from Southern California, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to make sure that the U.S. builds a CDMA cell system in Iraq -- the same system that's used in America, and one developed by Qualcomm, which happens to be one of Issa's most generous donors. The Defense Department had apparently been thinking of setting up a GSM system in Iraq, but Issa warned Rumsfeld that such a system, which is the standard in Europe, and elsewhere in the Mideast, would benefit "French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders."

Uh-huh. Right. So, in the rebuilt Iraq, travelling Iraqis will be able to talk to Americans in America on their mobiles (which of course they will really want to do) but not to any of their Middle Eastern neighbours, Asia, Europe, Africa and the vast bulk of the world that uses GSM and not CDMA. They won't even be talking to the UK. But at least they can phone the UN. Later on: Hmmmm, I forgot to look at this from the obvious angle. All the American companies getting the rebuild contracts (the wider subject of the piece above) will, of course, be able to use their mobiles in Iraq, while the rest of the world won't. Duh!

From the Warwatch blog:

From an editorial in France's Libration: "[We must accept] the invasion as a fait accompli and vote as soon as possible for a U.N. resolution that would open the way for the biggest humanitarian aid operation in recent history. It would be a mistake by France and the other anti-war countries to block U.N. involvement in Iraq. Likewise, it would be a serious mistake for the United States to try to sideline the United Nations in the post-Saddam era. So we must wish 'good luck' to Tony Blair in his attempts to convince Bush to abandon his imperialist isolation and entrust the United Nations with managing the aid as well as the administration and reconstruction of Iraq...Placing the country under a U.N. mandate is the only way to end this war while preventing the open wounds of Iraq and the Middle East...from becoming even more dangerously infected."