It's The Little Things....

Via NYT, a tragicomic microcosm of the past six years:

Last year, the Iranian Embassy opened the Iranian Corner, a room in Kabul University's main library filled with computers, books and magazines from Iran, promoting Iran's ancient culture and modern achievements. Librarians say it is more popular than the adjoining American Corner, sponsored by the United States Embassy, primarily because it has a better Internet connection.

We've poured billions into infrastructure in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the largest U.S. embassies in the world in Kabul and Baghdad. And supposedly one of our main concerns is Iran's growing influence in the region. But when it's time to do something at which we should excel -- provide a simple, low cost technology to students that could yield outsized future returns -- we're beaten by....Iran.

Updated mantra for Michael Ledeen: Faster internet connections, please.