SO MUCH FOR THE CLAIM that U.S. corporations control Iraqi rebuilding contracts:

Iraq’s U.S.-led government awarded licenses Monday for firms to set up mobile phone networks, rebuffing calls by some American lawmakers to use U.S.-backed technology to restore shattered communications.

Iraqi Communications Minister Haidar al-Ebadi said Iraq’s three regional networks would use the GSM system, already adopted across the Middle East. U.S.-backed technology is based on the CDMA system.

The licenses are among the most potentially lucrative and high-profile contracts to be offered in postwar Iraq.

In a way this makes sense — GSM is more common around the world, and particularly in neighboring countries. Unfortunately, it’s an inferior technology, according to Steven Den Beste, a knowledgeable if not entirely disinterested commentator. Oh, well.