Iranians have downloaded 268,568 copies of the latest version of Mozilla's Firefox browser since it was released Tuesday. That Iran would download more copies than Brazil and almost as many as China and Canada says that there are millions of people in that country who are closely engaged with the Web -- which is to say, literate, Western-oriented and enlightened enough to shun the works of Bill Gates and his spawn.

Iran's government does not reflect its people, and the Internet eventually will help change that fact. Years ago I had coffee at the United Nations with the press attache from the Iranian mission in New York. He liked to play backgammon online. He played with people all over the world. Israelis? I don't remember. But he believed the Net would help bring people together and heal the globe's wounds. It hasn't happened yet, but the Internet is a force for good.