Control of the Internet

In an on line article dated November/December 2005 in Foreign Affairs (www.foreignaffairs.org) published online by the Council on Foreign Relations, author Neil Cukier asks “What would prevent Washington, …from one day choosing, say, to knock Iran off the Internet by simply deleting its two-letter moniker, “.ir,” from the domain name system?”
I’d like to know if his assertion is true, or manipulative journalism of just enough facts to make this sound plausible?