Hacking in Iraq

American ingenuity to provide people stationed in Iraq with some diversion. Last year I helped a Marine medical outfit set one of these up in Afghanistan. :unsure:

It should come as no surprise, then, that some enterprising military personnel have engineered an alternative. Hajjinets, the common term for troop-owned ISPs, have sprung to life on almost every base around Iraq. A typical Hajjinet is built and maintained by one or two soldiers and can provide nearly 24-hour internet access (until the region is stabilized and electrical lines can be installed, generators must occasionally be powered down for maintenance). Most Hajjinets are small, serving between 20 and 30 troops, but ISPs serving as many as 300 are known to exist. In a country wracked by war, where even the capital city receives only intermittent electricity, where people's lives are in constant peril, and where even basic necessities are scarce, this is no small victory.

Well, heck. That explains why we're not making more headway in Iraq. All the G.I.s are too busy reading the Cellar.

This is surreal. I'm on a Hajjinet. Reading the Cellar... and a post about being on the hajjinet reading the cellar.

And dar512... shhhh! (All the footage you see on TV is from last year. We quit a while back, and paid the press to recycle footage. We've been tanning and surfing the net the whole time.)

Must... resist... babble... can't. Most Iraqis don't have running water (they've never had it), but there's a satellite dish on almost every home. Yup. Places with no paved roads, no running water, and no sewage system, have satellite tv and internet available- and everyone has it.

Priorities man, priorities.

It's not like you can go to the local black market and buy a water pipe, road, or sewage line to your home.

I know. I'm not blaming them for not having an infrastructure. It's just weird.