Mobile Phones: The Best Outcome of the Iraq War?

There was a short but remarkable piece in last week's Economist, about the amazing spread of cell phones in Iraq since the US invasion-- many Iraqis list the arrival of mobile technology as the single best outcome of the American invasion. During the war, the phones were used in all sorts of novel ways by people put in a pinch:

“I love my mobile phone like a baby,” says Umm Basm, a mother of two. During recent years of civil strife, when many stayed indoors, mobile phones were the lifeline. They also became a tool of commerce. Reluctant to risk their lives by visiting a bank, many subscribers transferred money to each other by passing on the serial numbers of scratch cards charged with credit, like gift vouchers.

Mobile networks were also used by the more nefarious parts of society.  Beyond the cell-detonated bombs that got considerable press in the US, mobile phone access has changed the way every seedy operator does business:

Criminal rings are among the parallel currency’s busiest users. Kidnap gangs ask for ransom to be paid by text messages listing a hundred or more numbers of high-value phone cards. Prostitutes get regular customers to send monthly retainers to their phones, earning them the nickname “scratch-card concubines”, while corrupt government officials ask citizens for $50 in phone credit to perform minor tasks.

Just goes to show that this technology is just a tool-- not inherently good or bad, and not an end goal in itself.