text: Investor Relations Financial News • 05/13/2015Datalogic appoints Michele Marchesan Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer • 05/07/2015The Board of Directors approved the Quarterly Report at 31st March 2015 • 04/28/2015Datalogic S.p.A. Shareholders' Meeting Read more 2014 Financial report Financial report Highlights Stock Quote Latest Share Price 12.71€ | -0.39 % Delay time 20 minutes05:01 PM Read more Events Calendar July 30, 2015 Board of Directors to approve the Consolidated Financial Report as of June 30, 2015 Full Calendar Analysts' Coverage Latest Analyst Research Intermonte Study Research Download Pdf Presentations Datalogic FY2014 Results, 09/03/2015 Download Pdf Datalogic at a glance Datalogic Group is a global leader in Automatic Data Capture and Industrial Automation markets. As a world-class producer of bar code readers, mobile computers, sensors, vision systems and laser marking systems, Datalogic offers innovative solutions for a full range of applications in the retail, transportation & logistics, manufacturing and healthcare industries. For the transmission of the Regulated Information Datalogic has chosen the SDIR-NIS circuit, managed by BIt Market Services, that belongs to the London Stock Exchange Group, Piazza degli Affari n. 6 - Milan - Italy. For the storage of the Regulated Information, Datalogic has chosen the 1Info instrument (www.1info.it), managed by Computershare SpA, Via Lorenzo Mascheroni n. 19 –Milan – Italy.


text: scrubs Flag By: whatwentwrong (More by author: Most viewed, Newest, Most Thumbs) previous next random - Fav + Fav Comment We agreed Al) t! t new Dude, we' raa little married. . l. lave It. It e scho ... Recommend tagsx +421 Views: 24142 Favorited: 23 Submitted: 09/30/2013 Share On Facebook Remove from favorites Add to favorites Unsubscribe from whatwentwrong Subscribe to whatwentwrong

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Maat Tarot
By Tarot Media Company
Open iTunes to buy and download apps.
The MAAT Tarot is Julie Cuccia-Watt's inspired re-interpretation of the Tarot, based on the lunar wheel of the year. The images are vibrant, intense, and symbolically rich. The correspondences of the cards with the lunar calendar create additional depth for interpretation. Cuccia-Watts captures the complexities and interwoven relationships of the cards and their archetypes in her detailed and dramatic images.
The application includes the full, high-resolution artwork and detailed text of the print MAAT deck, along with a range of spreads and supplemental information on the use of the MAAT Tarot.
Controls are available to create readings with the full range of cards, include or exclude reversed cards, or to create readings with just the Major Arcana, court cards, pip cards, or combinations.
What's New in Version 1.0.1
Fixed bug in which readings would not be saved when the application stays in the background.
Typographical errors in card text.
iPhone Screenshot
- Category: Entertainment
- Updated: 15 July 2011
- Version: 1.0.1
- Size: 18.7 MB
- Language: English
- Developer: Tarot Media Company
- © 2010 Tarot Media Company
Compatibility: Requires iOS 3.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.


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My Confederate Kinfolk A Twenty-first Century Freedwoman Discovers Her Roots (Paperback)
|Author: Thulani Davis
$10 off $75 Home, Sports, School Supplies, Fashion, & Beauty - Back to School. Use promo code BACK2SCHOOL at checkout. Ends 7/8/2015.
Learn more about My Confederate Kinfolk:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Sku: 202489046
Publish Date: 4/10/2007
Dimensions: (in Inches) 8.5H x 5.5L x 0.75T
Pages: 324
Age Range: NA
See more in Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
|Beloved novelist and playwright Thulani Davis takes a journey through her ancestral history--and finds tartan plaid, unlikely lovers, and Confederate soldiers.
From the Publisher:
Starting from a photograph and writings left by her grandmother, acclaimed African-American novelist Thulani Davis goes looking for the ?white folk? in her family, a Scots-Irish family of cotton planters unknown to her-and uncovers a history far richer and stranger than she had ever imagined. Her journey challenges us to examine the origins of some of our most deeply ingrained notions about what makes a family black or white, and offers an immensely compelling, intellectually challenging alternative.


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- 29Promote
Canvas Print
The Bright Side [Floral]by Veronica Galbraith
Fine art print on bright white, fine poly-cotton blend, matte canvas using latest generation Epson archival inks. Individually trimmed and hand stretched museum wrap over 1-1/2" deep wood stretcher bars. Includes wall hanging hardware.
very nice :)
Thank you very much Mr. Last Nite!!!
Gorgeous!! :)))))
Really pretty!~
Thanks again!
Love this!
Thanks again Cate! :-)
All of the products look fantastic! Lovely design and color scheme :)
Thanks Sarah, that makes me happy!
Great designs!
Thanks Melanie!
See More Comments


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It was a nonsmoking room but the room next door someone was smoking. Also when we arrieved the room was freezing.
Room, cleanliness
Desk staff, never there and not personable.
We just pick it off Priceline for the area we wanted to stay
My daughter granddaughter and I stayed here. Took tray to get coffee juice and sweet rolls. I told the clerks what I was doing. They said we normally don't do that. I paid for this including in my room 1 clerk watched me I inky got coffee and juice
Location, clean, bed quality.
Aging interior. Smoking rooms adjacent to nonsmoking
Clean rooms, reasonable breakfast
Location was difficult to find. They could do a better job of explaining how to get there.
I liked the lobby.
The bathroom was nice, but the shower head was old.
The young woman at the desk tried to fix our broken refrigerator, but couldn't. She moved us to a room nearby and was very nice to us.
The room keys did not work in each room we were moved to. The first room's refrigerator was broken. The second room did not have a TV remote. The fan did not work in the bathroom. Breakfast was passable. Hard to find the hotel due to street signage.
The cleanliness was up to standard.
I thought there was a pool for my kids to swim in and when I got there it was closed. Also they up talked their 'hot' breakfast but it was nothing more than some warmed up sausage patties and egg patties. Yes egg 'patties.' not happy at all
This is the worst hotel I have ever seen in my life. First of all, I show up at the lobby around 2:30PM, the guy has his down and did not even greet me. I told him that I had a reservation and gave him my name. He did not even respond.
I told him again that I had a reservation and gave my name again. He replied in weired tone telling me he knew. He told me that checkin was at 3:00 PM and asked me to leave becasue he was bussy. I left, came back at 3:45Pm, the lobby was closed.
It had a bed.
Sketchy folks hanging around that reeked of BO. The ice cold showers were not pleasant. Not the safest i have ever felt at a hotel.
The room was very clean .
I asked for a fridge room and when I checked in, it wasn't
The location was nice. It was close to the mall and other restraunts. The room was clean.
There was an annoying smell in the entire building. More of like a mildew or old carpet smell. The beds were extremely uncomfortable, when I woke up the next morning my back was hurting. The ice machine was broken so we had to go to the first floor.
The room was clean and conveniently located.
The microwave wasn't working and the person at the front desk blamed it on me instead of looking at it. Staff always seemed grumpy. A couple plugs didn't work. The fridge froze our bottled water. The hallways were hot and humid and smelled smoky.
The location couldn't have been better (unless it was on six flags property). Less than a quarter mile to the gate. The room was spacious and you can see the park from some of the rooms. Complimentary breakfast. Good water pressure.
There was no water fountain. The hotel only had rooms (no other facilities). The bathroom in our room was small. The continental breakfast was limited. Our sink faucet was also too close to the back of the sink.
Clean and beds were comfortable
Staff was friendly
Killed 3 roaches n tub was clogged
The suite was set up very nicely.
We had to beg for toilet paper and towels...daily. We traveled with dogs and they put us on the 3rd floor!? The staff was very nice but the owner was not friendly and clearly scares the staff who take the heat from customers about no towels etc.
This hotel is located just off the interstate, making it easy to get around. The breakfast room is clean. The lady who supervises the breakfast is very nice and accomodating. There are waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, cereal, juice, fruit, yogurt, bread
The prices beds comfortable
Tubs wasn't clean enough
The room was clean. The beds were comfortable and we even got a discount on the pet fee.
Room smelled a little weird when we first got there. Waffle breakfast ended at 9:30am.
Here's why:
We're not the seller
At KAYAK we don't set prices, so it's not possible for us to guarantee what other companies are selling.
We aggregate tons of data for you
Our service lets you quickly and easily compare results from hundreds of travel sites at once. In this sense, KAYAK is a search engine and we don't guarantee prices we find.
Why aren't prices accurate 100% of the time?
Prices on airline seats, hotel rooms and car rentals can change frequently. Several people may also be trying to buy the same travel option simultaneously. As a result, you may find on occasion that certain prices are no longer available.
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text: We were 3 couples who stayed at wonderful Villa mango for four days (2015 February 19 - 23). We chose this place for our weeding ceremony and it was great choice. Villa mango arranged all the concerns starting from documentation, priest, decorations, photographer and so on. During the wedding ceremony the atmosphere was amazing because of the ocean, beautiful surroundings... More


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Luxury 1 Bedroom - 1 Bath - (PS14)Argentina, Capital Federal, Buenos Aires
About This Listing
Space where guests can cook their own meals
Central heating or a heater in the listing
Space where guests can cook their own meals
Towels, bed sheets, soap, and toilet paper
Central heating or a heater in the listing
In the building, free or for a fee
In the building, free or for a fee
Continuous access in the listing
Breakfast is provided.
The listing can accommodate a gathering of 25 or more attendees
Easy access to the building and listing for guests in wheelchairs
Private or Shared
Free, in the building or nearby
Posted emergency information and resources
The Space
Located in the Palermo Soho neighborhood —considered to be the most vibrant area of Buenos Aires — this ultra luxury apartment is just blocks from Plaza Serrano.
It is spacious with over 538 sq. feet (50 sq. meters). The apartment gets plenty of sunlight throughout the day. The view of the city both day and night is amazing.
The apartment is in an upscale brand new building recently completed in 2007.
The building features 24 hours per day/ 7 days per week security, 4 modern elevators, pool, and guests have access to the Observatory Deck on the 25th floor of the building.
The building also has an outdoor pool and a gym and sauna.
It is a perfect alternative for those that do not want to be cramped in a smaller hotel room or apartment. No expense was spared furnishing this apartment.
The furniture is all high-end custom made for this apartment.
The bedroom features a King size bed with a Four Seasons Presidential suite mattress. There is a balcony off the living room with table and 2 chairs.
Both feature an amazing view of the city. There is a flat screen LCD TV in both the living room and the bedroom.
The apartment features a custom designed desk, high-speed Internet access and also Wi-Fi wireless internet is available throughout the apartment.
This apartment is perfect for a longer term stay in Buenos Aires or pampering yourself for just a few short nights.
Our company owns or manages several apartments in the same building if you are coming with family or friends and all want to stay in the same building.
The owner of this property owns 2 other similar apartments in the same building.
Maximum Capacity: 4 people
This generous apartment includes a whole host of luxurious features, including:
Living Room / Dining Room
-Panasonic 5.8 Ghz cordless telephone with voicemail
-Luxurious Italian sofa-bed (that can accomodate an additional 2 people), furniture and furnishings
-Stereo/CD player with remote control
-36' LCD TV with Cable
-DVD Player (also plays CD's/MP3's)
-Luxury lighting
-Custom work desk with high-speed Internet access
-Private Balcony with table and 2 chairs.
-Dining room table with 4 chairs
-King size bed with Four Seasons Presidential suite luxury mattress
-Four Seasons Intelligent pillows
-Panasonic 5.8 Ghz cordless telephone
-Home & Harmony luxury bedding
-In-room electronic programmable safe
-Custom made designer closets
-Mood lighting
-Modern bathroom with shower and bathtub
-Hair dryer
-Mood lighting
-Electronic Scale
-Full size microwave oven
-Full size Refrigerator/Freezer
-Fully equipped with dishes, silverware, juicer, coffee maker, toaster, pots and pans, Tupperware, blender, and all cooking utensils.
Other Features
-Air conditioning in each room (Individual -Temperature control for maximum comfort)
-Private Balcony
-Wi-Fi high-speed wireless Internet access
-2 Umbrellas for those rainy days
-Ariston Washing machine for washing your clothes along with Drying rack (Building also has coin operated washers and dryers)
-Complimentary GSM cell phone with local number
-Local phone line with unlimited free local calls.
-Equipped with iron and ironing board
-Daily housekeeping service available*
-Observatory Deck / Lounge on the top of the building
-24 Hours per day / 7 days per week Security
-Gym and Sauna
-Building also has a common laundry room area
-Extensive cable package
* Available for an additional charge
Check In: 2 PM
Check out: 12 PM
-Please inquire about the fee to check in early or check out late -
Upon arrival, our staff will meet you at your apartment with your keys and orient you with the apartment. We will also collect a damage deposit that will be refunded after your stay, provided that everything is in the same condition as when you arrived. If anything is damaged or missing, you agree to pay the cost to repair or replace it. If the cost is more than the security deposit, you agree to cover the remaining balance due.
Security deposits of $500 are payable before arrival to AirBnB. Client agrees to pay for any damage to the property or missing items.
· A passport or national ID must be presented at the check-in. The use of the property by more than the capacity limits of the property will result in the immediate termination of the rental agreement.
· Anyone booking an apartment with us agrees not to have parties or loud music playing. If neighbors complain and/or the police are called, it may result in the immediate eviction of the tenant regardless of the time of day or night. This will also result in the loss of prepaid rent. Quiet time in the properties is from 10 PM to 10 AM.
· Rental guests agree not to exceed the maximum occupancy listed on the website. If rental guests exceed the maximum occupancy of the apartment, owner/manager may immediately evict them with no refund of the unused portion of the rental period. At NO time can the maximum occupancy be exceeded.
· By booking with our firm you agree to our terms and conditions and expected to abide by these rules. You will also be expected to sign these rules upon check-in on your date of arrival.
7 Reviews
My stay at Michael Koh's place was fine.
I was comfortable and place matched the description.
Thanks for your hospitality Michael.
This is the perfect apartment if you want to stay in the coolest area in Buenos Aires. Palermo has a wonderful vibe with a great cafe culture that helps you soak up the atmosphere of this great city. The apartment is exaclty as described and is very comfortable. At the end of busy day exploring the city the apartment provided a welcoming place to come back to. We enjoyed sitting on the balcony and watching sunset before heading to dinner at one of the many local restaurants. The bed was one of the most comfortable beds we slept in during our whole holiday in Argentina. Excellent security and helpful concierge meant we felt very safe.
The hosts have several properties and they run a very professional service, the sort you would expect in a hotel. Airport transfers were well organised and the hosts were helpful with information and guidance during our stay. I would stay here again.
We arrived a bit later than normal check-in, but the apartment was in a fantastic, quiet-but-vibrant neighborhood. The accomodations were just as described. We were able to take several walking tours around Palermo and had wonderful meals.
The host left a "guidebook" on how to use all apartment features, as well as recommendations on sights and necessities in the area. When/if I return to Buenos Aires, this would be a great place to call home temporarily.
What more can I say other than I love this property. It is exactly as described in the posting and I am looking forward to staying here again. Apartment is comfortable and cozy and in an excellent location in the heart of Palermo Soho. Conveniently located to a large grocery store (1 block away), restaurants, shops, etc. I enjoyed having coffee in the morning on the balcony with a wonderful view then grabbing some sun by the pool after lunch. Bed was very comfortable, water pressure was great (and hot), the air-conditioning units are great and wi-fi works very well. The host that met me at the apartment was very professional and my communications with Michael were promptly answered and very professional. I would highly recommend this property.
Renting with Michael was a really superior experience. Although there were some glitches with the porters of building and with the bathroom, he and his team in Buenos Aires did mavels to make our lives easier and smoother. He was also very flexible and accommodating when we needed to extend our stay with a late check-out.
The apartment was perfectly well equipped with a stunning view.
Definitely a person to fully trust and an apartment to recommend.
Great 1st trip to Buenos Aires. The apartment has everything one needs and is as beautiful as shown on the pictures. Perfect location and above all wonderful staff (always willing to help, to find a solution, very friendly, careful and flexible people). It was absolutely perfect. I strongly recommend renting this apartment.
The pluses: An elegant, upscale apartment in one of the most fashionable neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. The apartment includes updated furniture, including two nice tv sets, wi-fi, dvd (no blue-ray), and cd player. The apartment is located in a safe and very charming neighborhood (Palermo Soho), close to cafes, restaurants and the enchanting Plaza Serrano. I particularly enjoyed the view from the balcony. Michael was an extremely good host who keep in touch with me since I booked the apartment.
The minuses: I was charged an extra $20 fee because my flight was delayed and I arrived 10 (TEN) minutes after 6:00 PM. I didn't know about these "penalty" fees. Perhaps it is my fault but it seemed a bit aggressive taxing approach (perhaps I am too provincial).
There was no hot-water in the apartment the night that I arrived. That is not itself a cause of complaint (these things happen everywhere) but what is a cause of complaint is that the next day I had to call twice to get the hot water re-established. I had to wait until 11:00 AM to take a shower. This relatively small inconvenience could be justified by the fact that it occurred during a holiday. In fact, I wouldn't be concerned about this issue in other visit (although I would check the hot water is running before the check-in process is completed!).
The apartment has lots of electronic gadgets but it lacks paper napkins, coffee filters, salt, pepper, cooking oil, and other elemental stuff that is included in most other places. You don't expect these amenities in a cheap place, but this is not a cheap place.
This host has 53 reviews for other properties.View Other Reviews
About the Host, Michael
Hi, I'm Michael and I'm American. I have more apartment rental experience in Buenos Aires than anyone out there. In fact, I created the luxury apartment rental industry in Buenos Aires back in 2002 when I started the first luxury short-term apartment rental company. I've been renting out my properties in Buenos Aires ever since. I love working with AirBnb guests and have had only positive experience with hundreds of guests over the years. (I've been renting my properties on AirBnb since 2010 so you can book with confidence).
All of my properties are located in the best areas and are extremely well furnished and fitted out. Many locals use very cheap mattresses and horrible furniture but that is where my properties are different and one of the reasons why they are amongst the most requested in all of Buenos Aires. I feature premium luxurious mattresses, upscale furniture, latest electronics, wi-fi Internet access and Cable TV.
My properties and I have been featured/mentioned in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, HGTV's House Hunter's International, Consumer Traveler Magazine, BBC and many other places. So you can book with confidence.
You can see all of my owned properties below. Feel free to contact me with ANY questions or comments. Thanks for your trust and business.
PS8 - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58797
A28 - http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58667
AX1 - http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58672
PS14 - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58801
UNO21 - http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58789
UNO22 - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58778
AP2 - http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58802
A2 - http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/58761
I love staying in high end properties when I travel and I set up my properties with that same high level that I look for. My guests are extremely important to me.


text:
No announcement yet.
Binary Driver Blobs Aren't Yet Ready For Wayland
new posts
Originally posted by asdxHow about if instead of you insulting me (calling me shite) you try to do the same things you do with the blob but with nouveau, and when you see something that doesn't work, report that issue to the nouveau developers?
Oh I know, of course you won't, you are an open-source hypocrite. Like the many others in this forum.
and by the way, while you are telling me to stop insulting you (like a little bitch!), you earlier posted to someone else this;
Originally posted by asdxYOU should go and die in a fire. Fucking moron
Originally posted by asdxYou will rather call nouveau "garbage" and insult the tremendous work of so many people who have bothered to RE the hardware for your own benefit, but then you go on braging that you "contributed" with bug reports.
And yes, I have used Linux for a long time and contributed to hundred of bugs reports also, but that doesn't give me the right to insult people and their work, like you guys do.
1st. Don't misquote me to support your fallacious statements.... I never said that Nouveau was garbage. What i did say was it is garbage compared to the blob. You do know their is a huge difference there, right? To be quite honest though, i would go much further and say - not only is it crap compared to the blob, but also compared to any of the other main OSS GFX drivers... 2nd. How does reverse-engineering something that i don't even use 'benefit me' exactly? (it doesn't, i don't use it!). it did possibly benefit Nouveau though, being as i was using unsupported GFX card and the data i collected could have helped in their efforts. 3rd. I wasn't insulting their work. Nouveau compared to the blob sucks crap in a variety of ways.
Originally posted by asdxYou guys are nothing but open-source hypocrites and morons.
Fuck off now.
LOL. you such a dumb fucking SHITE!Last edited by ninez; 07-25-2012, 05:53 PM.
asdx i think is the new Q )
i agree blobs are bad but isnt linux all about choice? why are u being so comunist) we can all live toghether blobs and OSS drivers in same ecosystem. try to let go off all that hate u have inside u and dont spam it here on forums. in the end .... end-user wants choice, choice to run what ever operating system wants or need on his hardware, some want to use their hardware to their full extent that means using blobs, others are just fine with OSS drivers included in distros they use. I for myself i am using OSS radeon driver after in the past succesfully using ati blob, but for my mobility hd 3200 latest amd driver is getting coruptions in windows and linux, so i can say i am pretty good using OSS radeon except the overheating of my laptop. Just for the sake of talking i dont see any major improvement for my card in latest radeon developement i had same frames in mesa 7.8 as i have i mesa 8.0 its true i only ran extremetuxracer for test got aprox 30 fps and with blob around 90.
And as the trend goes developers will always concentrate on new hardware. So i dont think i`ll see in this life an OSS radeon driver on same feature parity as the official amd blob as crappy as buggy as it is. Kudos for intel dev for actually trying to make a difference i hope only that they improve their hardware also. Hope i didnt offended anyone i just spoke my mind, if by any change i did i appologize in advance.
Let's get the facts straight with real life examples:
* AMD released specs in 2007 (?), that's FIVE years. Did OSS community get driver ready to be on par with fglrx performance wise or power management wise, even at half? NO. My laptop overheats and shuts down when using radeon driver, openarena is slow not counting any other demanding game. fglrx - fine and working. And I have lenovo T500, which supposed to run linux quite good.
* Intel OSS driver and cards, what are they for? Desktop usage. No 3D intensitive tasks, they are crap at games. Unity is SLOW on my GM45 chipset but Vista seems to be fine (I tested it sooo long ago). Now what: OSS can't keep up, but intel is the best supporting drivers. Good for users, well to some extent only.
* HTPC (+nvidia), what it supposed to be: quiet, small, power efficient computer on which we run linux and play 1080p w/o issues. Show me ANY HTPC with OSS drivers that can run 1080p let's say at max 20W usage? NONE, there are NONE. My ION + Atom is about 20W, it's small robust and can be attached to the back of my FHD LED TV with proper HDMI support. OSS not near the goal.
* Every propriety driver has some intellectual property from 3rd parties (not counting the code they write themselves and won't want to show), they can't be opened up, so NO, fglrx or nvidia never will be opensource.
* There already are mentioned facts about Android in this thread, not everyone are willing to be OSS, but a lot from them are willing to be supporting linux.
If specs are opened, how fast OSS can keep up if every year there are NEW SHINY cards available from vendors? By current trend - NEVER.
Do anyone thinks that OSS coders were born with graphics stuff in their heads? Do they know how to optimize OpenGL and stuff like that? NO, they are learning, graphics is most complex stuff in computer.
Linux needs proper, fast and stable GL drivers to enter the real business, OSS - NO, they can't keep up with the pace and don't have the knowledge. AMD/NVIDIA they are hiring people to write that stuff, there are specialized knowledge needed etc.
By saying NO to binary drivers, someone will be shooting himself in the both foots. If Wayland is doing that, well, good luck.
For end-users binary drivers are best bet for say next 5 years, OSS can't keep up and there are good reasons for that but those are not gonna change any time soon.
So anyone saying "blobs must die" are living in imaginary world, please close your eyes while dreaming.
P.S. And yes, asdx is 11 years old troll, how can ninez be so polite (think)
Originally posted by asdxYou are the fucking piece of shit. Fuck off, douchebag.
this is what you say because you have nothing intelligent to contribute, just a bunch of non-sensical rubbish, trolling and ending each post, telling whomever you are responding to to 'fuck off'. LOL.
sorry about you luck, but if you continue to make assoholic posts - i for one have no problem calling you on it
just fucking try me, you little puke!
Originally posted by Temar View PostHaha, yeah great idea - let the CPU do all the work and let the GFX chip burn even more power because your precious OSS driver does not even support proper power management.
If you have a 3 core Llano, you probably have a A6-3500. That CPU alone has a TDP of 65 W! Yes, I really can see how this is an alternative for a low power, low noise, HTPC. My Intel Atom system with Nvidia Ion does not even have a fan and it's power supply has a maximum output of 25W.
Have fun with your OSS driver and your crappy HTPC.
The Atom was absolutely unacceptable for my purposes, as I also wanted the system to be able to handle some emulation duties as well as the other duties described. An Atom would not have been fast enough for the systems that I wanted to emulate. Brazos probably wouldn't have been fast enough either. Llano is. If all I wanted was a general media playback device, I would've bought something like a Roku.
Some people use their HTPCs as more than just dumb playback devices.
Originally posted by enrico.tagliavini View PostI agree fglrx is not the best solution, of course it is not! Damn the intel driver is a paradise compared to it. I sold every AMD/NVIDIA machine I had to switch to intel. But still fglrx, even it is an half pile of bugged crap, is usefull to someone. Burning it is not a good solution.
Originally posted by asdxI won't address your childish insulting points because I have better things to do with my time.
Originally posted by asdxYou're the puke here.
Oh you said you're an Apple user, what a fucking faggot.
Go away douche.
Yes, i own a Macbook Pro - so what? I am into Proaudio - many of the best apps are for Mac (or Windows, but i don't use Windows). I own adobe CS5 and also use some Mac-only apps like Max/MSP, for example. I also need to be able to test on all platforms for work (as a part of my Job). I don't use OSes as a fashion statement or political statement - I use what works the best for my purposes. Linux is my platform of choice, however Apple/MacOSX offers a lot of software, which their are ZERO counterparts for linux, or incredibly crappy alternatives... for some stuff, it is nice to have a Mac around for.
but you can continue with your childish, Juvenile, obtuse points of view if you like
Originally posted by asdxYou guys are a huge disappointment to the Linux community, you won't even respect Linus Torvalds matter on the subject.
Please go and use Windows and stay there if you love close-source blobs so much.
Fuck you, all of you.
I'm done here.
@everyone else - i think we broke asdx' brain. lolLast edited by ninez; 07-25-2012, 06:31 PM.
Originally posted by asdxOk, let's stop with the insults.
What point exactly you want me to address?
but it's not only my posts (for example #61) but other users posts as well.
it's pretty much useless, though. I have ZERO respect for you and i have a feeling i am not the only one :\ - and that's been building up since you first started posting in these forums (or at least the first times i saw you posting).
....and what do you know! - someone is already asking Michael to moderate the forums, and specifically is mentioning YOUR NAME.
I won't lie and say that i am not being a dick right now - but straight up - i am sooo sick of people like Q and yourself, who are essentially just in these forums to piss off people and cause problems.Last edited by ninez; 07-25-2012, 06:44 PM.
Originally posted by bug77 View PostMichael, if you do not start moderating posts such as asdx's, I will start getting my Linux updates elsewhere.
Banning Qaridarium has made these forums a bit more tolerable but I don't think it should end there. Asdx is probably the wost among the worst at the moment with his trollish, insulting and plain idiotic posts that poison the atmosphere of these forums.
Originally posted by Teho View Post+1
Banning Qaridarium has made these forums a bit more tolerable but I don't think it should end there. Asdx is probably the wost among the worst at the moment with his trollish, insulting and plain idiotic posts that poison the atmosphere of these forums.
maybe we should start a ban asdx thread, like people did for Q??
Originally posted by Teho View Post+1
Banning Qaridarium has made these forums a bit more tolerable but I don't think it should end there. Asdx is probably the wost among the worst at the moment with his trollish, insulting and plain idiotic posts that poison the atmosphere of these forums.
Originally posted by asdxYeah feel free to ban me. What do I have to lose? Talking with some douchebags (appletards among them) and open source hypocrites who do nothing but defend Nvidia and their crappy blob.
Fuck you all.
calling me an appletard doesn't bother me, sorry if you thought it would.
no dice, champ!
Originally posted by asdxBan yourself from life idiot, go kill yourself. Douche.
sorry if your not used to people calling you on your crap, but if no one is actually going to monitor these forums, maybe a few of us need to put shmuck's like you in their place.
@everyone else - yup, we definitely broke asdx' brain.Last edited by ninez; 07-25-2012, 07:03 PM.


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Quick Salsa for Easy Gluten-Free Heat
Vibrant, zesty salsa adds excitement to a gluten-free main dish, side or snack. Having an easy basic recipe for it is a must in my family. Here is one of…
Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges or Other Gluten-Free Veggies
Roasted vegetables have a more intense flavor and a denser texture than many methods of gluten-free cooking. They are as easy to prepare as the steamed or braised method. I especially like the bit of crusty surface they develop, sort of like on a fried potato, but without the fat.
Carrots and Parsnips with Horseradish
Fuel. Energy. Nourishment.
Keeping it all in balance so that we have what we need to satisfy our appetites, maintain our energy, fuel our activity… that's what would be healthy for us. And that balance is different for each person.
The parsnips could be cooked without carrots if you like, although the colors make a more appealing presentation together. The real star of the dish is the way the horseradish mingles with just the proper subtlety with the parsnips.
Butternut Squash Baked with Apple-Walnut-Cinnamon Stuffing
A satisfying aroma is coming from the oven. Soon we'll be enjoying the tender texture and delicate flavor of a butternut squash.
Today I'm baking this colorful squash with a little gluten-free stuffing made from apples, walnuts, cinnamon and nutmeg. Maybe a little butter, too….


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Amoeba is going to be a turn-based arcade game similar to commercial games like Worms or Snails. It is developed using FreePascal and the SDL4Freepascal libraries.0 weekly downloads
Notebox Mismanager
A Kylix-based note-accumulating program for Linux/X Windows that uses a grid motif rather than the traditional nested-folder system, and which has moderately advanced searching functions.2 weekly downloads
JGLSE - GLScene Editor written in Delphi with Jedi Lib / GLScene. Currently supports more than 60 GLScene objects. Materialmanagement, Scriptmanagement, Objectmanager are currently under development.0 weekly downloads
A open source editor specialized for Latex. This is written in Delphi and will be ported to Kylix as soon it is available.0 weekly downloads
FreeCLX is the Open Source project for Borland's CLX Component Library for Linux. A Borland No-Nonsense licensed version of CLX is available in the Desktop and Server Editions of Kylix. A Borland Kylix compiler is required to build FreeCLX.1 weekly downloads
Nexus framework
Nexus is a cross-platform, open, object-oriented application framework for Borland Delphi/Kylix.4 weekly downloads
It is another clone of Norton/Windows/Midnight Commander. It is being wrote on kylix open edition. Currently it supports command line (similary to DiscoCommandir, even better then WinCmd), two panels walking and simple execution, renaming, copying and mo25 weekly downloads
Linux.NET Framework
Linux.NET Framework is a developmental linux operating system that has native Oracle, SQL, and Development compiled on a secure platform for all end users.0 weekly downloads
gtk2 for pascal
GTK2 for pascal are the bindings for pascal to use the gtk2 libraries (gimp tool kit). Supported Languages are FreePascal and Kylix. They will work under Linux, FreeBSD and Win32. Included: libglade2.2 weekly downloads
Novel Client for Linux
Provides an easy to use, GUI, network client to mount Novell Netware volumes on a Linux box. Requires a recent ncpfs to be installed. Written in Kylix2 Professional.5 weekly downloads
Breuer Elektronik Delphi Components
This is a set of native Delphi VCL Components original written by Breuer Elektronik. We have decided to make them open source now.2 weekly downloads
FastGEO is a computational geometry library written in the object pascal language.0 weekly downloads
An action game to hunt virusses and vaccinate all computers in the building while solving complex puzzles and destroying whatever is on your way. ĄLevel editor included!0 weekly downloads
Software para gerenciamento Financeiro e Contabil. Com extensăo para controle de Vendas de Produtos e Serviços. Controle Orçamentário, Ativo Permanente e Livros Fiscais. Contabilidade com modulos para atender a Contabilidade Publica.1 weekly downloads
PostgreSQL database query tool
PgQuery is an interactive GUI tool for querying PostgreSQL databases. After connecting to a database server you can open views and tables, send custom sql statements, export the result to CSV (local file) or send it to KSpread to open it as a spreadsheet1 weekly downloads
CUPS for FreePascal and Lazarus
CUPS: Common UNIX Printing System for FPC/Lazarus1 weekly downloads
xinePascal is an Object Pascal wrapper for libxine, the multimedia player framework. Currently supports Kylix, with work on FreePascal support in progress.1 weekly downloads
Strategic Allied Forces
Strategic Allied Forces. Turn-based, Heroes-like with modern technology game written in Free Pascal and Lazarus.0 weekly downloads
msn messenger client and servers, writed in Delphi 7/Kylix. client, dispatch server, notification server, switchboard server, nexus server and loginnet server.3 weekly downloads
Bunt Area statistics ][
Burnt Area Statistics - compute & render projected and 3d areas of a burnt perimeter, grouped by land cover type, given the fire perimeter, land cover and TIN layers (.SHP format)0 weekly downloads
Multimenu generate graphic menus for executing other executables.1 weekly downloads
NFeBR Componente
Componente para a NFe (nota fiscal eletrônica) desenvolvido em inicialmente em Delphi, porém outras linguagens serão bem vindas.0 weekly downloads
fast powerful CALC
The fast powerful CALC is a desktop scientific calculator, still is under development and tests. The objective is offer a good and easy to use mathematical tool. I hope you enjoy it.2 weekly downloads
CoS Editor
A point and click editor for creating simple real time interactive simulations utilizing 2D/3D graphics and sound.0 weekly downloads
This plan to be an Authorware (TM) Clone. Due to the desition of Adobe to disontinue the creation of Authorware, I hoppe that with many of us create the clone with the power of the original tool... Authorware is an Adobe trademark.0 weekly downloads


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Blog Posts
A recap of what we've learned about invasive Lionfish this month (none of it good)
We're piling on to the innate suckiness of Mondays by summarizing three interesting things researchers have recently learned about lionfish in the Atlantic.
Sir, I think it's time for a bigger aquarium
Luisgo, I think you may want to consider a new reef tank. When corals have grown to such an extent that a quarter of your 125g's front viewing panel is encrusted with SPS, it's probably time to upgrade. And then there's that massive Euphyllia colony ...
Update on Texas Aquarium tragedy
Last week, we reported on mass fish mortality at Texas State Aquarium due to fluke treatment. In all, 389 fishes ended up losing their lives. The primarily investigation faults a mislabeled container of chemicals supplied by the manufacturer. What should have been Trichlorfon ended up being something completely different. Yikes!
Advanced Aquarist Wallpaper: Glorious Zoa
Zoanthids are one of the few "weed" corals that has increased in popularity as the years have gone by, and it's obvious why. The elegance of their radial symmetry rivals the most beautiful flowers, as is depicted in our latest wallpaper by Mitchell Brown.
Literally puking guts
Evisceration is not a sexy topic. Gross as it may be, it is an excellent defensive mechanism that a select few animals can do. Most of us know about a sea cumcumber's ability to expel its digestive tract to escape predators, but they aren't the only reef creatures able to do this. Tunicates (AKA sea squirts) also can. Scientists discovered the amazing extent of tunicates' ability to regenerate and how this research may help humans.
Yoshi's Trimma goby!
A new Japanese dwarf goby has just been officially cataloged into the books. Like many other new Trimma and Eviota species recently discovered, Trimma yoshinoi is another pint-sized beauty!
Innovative Marine's new Gourmet AUQA Gadgets
IM is set to launch three new feeding tools that make fish-feeding simpler, faster, and cleaner (for both you and your aquarium). The affordable Gourmet series AUQA Gadgets are ingenious designs that aid multiple modes of feeding.
Eating (with your) fish
In addition to a line of aquarium coffee and end tables, AZOO also makes an aquarium dining table with a look-down glass top. Would you want to eat with your fish?
Even the pros get it wrong sometimes
The Texas State Aquarium at Corpus Christi accidentally killed most of the fish in four of their indoor exhibits including their largest. The fish responded negatively to anti-fluke medication.
Jack Allen's 220 gallon reef tank is amazing
Big, beautiful coral colonies of all types stretching end to end with fat tangs and angelfish cruising leisurely through the reef. What's not to love?
Cercamia melanogaster is your newest described cardinalfish
The new Apogonid is beautiful due as much to its colors as its lack of colors. C.melanogaster is recognizable for its striking pigmentation on its anterior half combined with its pigmentless, nearly transparent posterior half.
Rambo, the Octographer
To entice visitors to contribute to conservation programs, Sea Life Aquarium (Auckland, New Zealand) has found a novel way to exploit octopus' ability to learn and perform tasks. They taught Rambo the octopus how to photograph aquarium patrons.
Filipe Oliveira's newest aquascape
Filipe Oliveira's is a masterful aquascaper, and we always look forward to seeing his imagination at work. He uploaded a video of his latest aquascape: a gorgeous 3 week old 350 liter (90 gallon) planted aquarium. Who says a centered composition can't convey motion?
Dokdo Tank: An upcoming affordable, high-tech nano reef system?
Information about the Dokdo Tank is sketchy at best. From what we've gathered, a South Korean manufacturer plans to introduce a total nano reef system that includes prop pumps, hang-on sump (with protein skimmer), LED lights, and monitoring sensors – all controlled wirelessly.
New rainbowfish really lives up to its name
Rainbowfish are beautiful fish, but let's face it; some species aren't quite as colorful as their common name suggests. Melanotaenia rubrovittata, the newest described species, lives up to its billing and then some.


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Portraits of iconic french heroines for the fabulous MILK magazine 's May issue.
Bigger picture here.
Portraits of iconic french heroines for the fabulous MILK magazine 's May issue.
Bigger picture here.
I've done illustrations for the Summer Getaway feature in Vogue China's June issue!
The entire spread will be up in the gallery shortly for those who want to take a closer look.
In collaboration with the brilliant agency 93ft, I recently did these illustrations for the boutique spa Mio Amore.
Pictures graciously provided by 93ft.
sketch inspired by junya watanabe.
Super excited about contributing to VOGUE China's May issue with these illustrations about the spring trends!
Sneak a peak in the gallery if you wanna take a closer look!
I have contributed to the latest issue of the wonderous poetry magazine Popshot, illustrating a poem called Sleepovers about childhood memories.
Check out more about the magazine here (or just click the picture!)
x e
I teamed up with Sundance Channel and Joe Zee (Elle) to illustrate their predictions for Oscar's red carpet designers. So much fun!
These are some of my favorites.The Chanel on Portman is a dream.
Click yourself over to Sundance Channel to see the rest of the predictions.
im sick.so while while im waiting to get better, here's a little something from the archives for ya;
everyone's fave twins! i love me some olson's;)
psst.bigger pic up in the gallery.


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VIEWS: 6 PAGES: 1 CATEGORY: Business POSTED ON: 1/20/2012 Public Domain
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Enrollment Fee Allotment Authorization Please type or print all entries. Name: Last First M.I. SSN Home Address: Street Apt. No. City State Zip Code Indicate below the action you wish to take for the allotment process. Please mark one of the three boxes and complete the requested information. Please Start a monthly allotment to Humana from my retirement pay for TRICARE Prime enrollment fees for the TRICARE South Region in the amount of: $_________ (Single $21.66 or Family $43.33). I have enclosed a payment (personal check, cashier's check, traveler's check, money order or credit card, e.g., Visa/Master card) for the 3-month payment ($65.00 individual or $130.00 family) of TRICARE Prime enrollment fees payable to Humana Military Healthcare. I understand that this payment is waived when transferring from another region and an allotment has already been set up in the prior region. Please Change my existing monthly allotment to Humana from $ ________ to $ ________ . My status changed as of (MM/YY) _____/_____ . Single to Family ($21.66 to $43.33) Family to Single ($43.33 to $21.66) Please Stop my existing allotment to Humana so that my Prime coverage is paid through the last day of (MM/YY) ______/______ . I hereby authorize this allotment to be taken from my military retirement pay. I understand that it will remain in effect until I request that it be changed or stopped. However, as a courtesy to me, I also authorize Humana to automatically stop this allotment at a future date if I become disenrolled from the TRICARE South Region for any reason, including transferring my enrollment to a different TRICARE region. Signature (Required): _______________________________ Date: __________ Humana will attempt to start the allotment from your military retirement pay by the next payment due date. You will be notified by Humana to make alternative payment arrangements if the allotment from your retirement pay could not be started by this date. Mail this form with your Enrollment application if completing it as a part of your new enrollment. Please complete, sign, and mail this form and payment to: Humana Military Healthcare Services ATTN: PNC Bank P.O. Box 105838 Atlanta, GA 30348-5838 If we already have your initial payment, you may fax this form to: Fax: 1-866-836-9455 10/11 FM5401BES10112
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Editor's note: this post previously appeared on my personal blog. I've been doing links posts on Tuesdays over there for a while now, so I guess I might as well start cross-listing them.
Editor's note: this post previously appeared on my personal blog. I've been doing links posts on Tuesdays over there for a while now, so I guess I might as well start cross-listing them.
This was a momentous week with the announcement of an interim deal on Iran's nuclear program. There were some critics to be sure of this effort, but I for one am hopeful that the six month effort to halt or at least pause some aspects of Iran's nuclear program will eventually lead to a permanent reduction of tensions between Iran and the West.
It's obviously too soon to say but as we give thanks this holiday season for our families and friends, we can only hope that the diplomatic overtures will ultimately bear fruit. With the past decade plus having yielded relentless military campaigns (some of them necessary but wars without seeming end nonetheless), we can only wish for pragmatic leaders to seize moments of opportunity to avoid yet another war. I know some people don't see it that way, so here's a set of links describing the deal, providing some links and commentary from critics, and some links to defenders of the agreement. Continue reading
The diplomatic dustup over Syria brought Russia in from the cold but simultaneously froze any notion that western allies were getting their strategic act together. Nonetheless, although the mistakes in the U.S. and UK's approach to building support at home and abroad for an intervention in Syria confused leaders and citizens alike, these mistakes should not be interpreted as an abrupt turn-around in their and their allies' strategic thinking.
In fact the Europeans, even under a prolonged condition of austerity, are making progress filling in the capability gaps made clear in the course of the Libyan operation. Recent history has demonstrated that arguing the U.S. should keep its security blanket in place despite the end of the Cold War—out of fear that Europeans would not increase their own defense capabilities in kind—was mistaken. Still, austerity has prevented sufficient progress to avoid the joint security trap.
Were the Arab Awakening to go awry and were an al-Qaeda affiliate to begin setting up training camps and operating somewhere such as Yemen, the U.S. or possibly NATO would no doubt heed the call once more to deal with the threat. But any future crisis in Europe's direct neighborhood, somewhere like Tunisia, will require Europe to take the lead as the U.S. is likely to take a pass. It is therefore in the joint interests of the U.S. and Europe not to reduce their mutual security at this critical juncture.
However Europe has yet to develop its own integrated, deployable, expeditionary military capability; instead a number of European allies à la the U.S. have been slashing their defense budgets under austerity. But akin to the classic prisoner's dilemma, if the U.S. and European allies do not coordinate their cuts and agree to begin "combining" what is left, both will become worse off and experience a mutual loss of security in lieu of cooperating. In fact, at this juncture western allies are actually on the verge of becoming ensnared in the joint security trap. Continue reading
It is shocking how little attention Iran's recent efforts to satisfy the international community's demands on nuclear question have received in the news media and academic discourse. As I write this, there are 1182 related news stories on news.google.com related to Rob Ford's struggles with the crack cocaine and only 85 related to Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Casual observation suggests that the two most common answers to the question above are: 1) there's a very good chance that they'd start a nuclear war with Israel; and 2) there's no real reason to think any other state would be impacted in any significant way. I find both unpersuasive for reasons I'll discuss below.
Before I do, though, let me get something out of the way—in this post, I will argue neither for nor against the use of force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. To answer questions of what should be done, one must not only draw upon some set of beliefs about the likely consequences of the available options, but one's value judgments about the outcomes and the costs likely to be incurred along the way to producing them. I'm willing to try to persuade you to change your views about the likely consequences of certain outcomes, but I'm going to keep my value judgments to myself.
A full-scale US military intervention in Syria is off the table, as is a no-fly zone. The US decision to provide arms to Syrian opposition forces is nonetheless intended to shift the military initiative away from Assad regime. But the opposition is splintered, which has allowed the Hezbollah-backed government forces to level the playing field. Although the outcome remains unclear, it may be time for Western governments to begin serious planning for potential post-conflict stabilization operations.
At this stage it appears the Assad regime has the momentum, aided in particular by Hezbollah but also Iran and Russia. US and European efforts to provide direct military aid to the Syrian opposition have been slow to take shape, which in combination with regime gains on the ground have fed the new conventional wisdom that Assad is on course to hold on to power.
Mornin' ducks… In anticipation of the P5+1 talks in Kazakhstan this week, let's start the week in…
This is a guest post by Peter S. Henne. Peter is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. He formerly worked as a national security consultant. His research focuses on terrorism and religious conflict; he has also written on the role of faith in US foreign policy. During 2012-2013 he will be a fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
Are some nations more real than others? Does it matter? Wednesday on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe," Joe Klein was a guest, discussing the current showdown over Iran's nuclear program. Klein is a smart and reasonable man, and most of what he said made sense. But he made a few almost throw-away comments about 'real' versus 'fake' nations thatóin my mind at leastówere a bit disturbing.
The segment is available here, and the two comments are 8:35 and 9:40 (counting down on the MSNBC video player). In explaining why we shouldn't attack Iran over its nuclear weapons, he said it is a 'real' country unlike many others in the region, with a strong sense of identity and history. When the conversation turned to Pakistan, he contrasted it with the real-ness of Iran in explaining why its possession of nuclear weapons is more concerning than Iran's.
Again, I don't necessarily disagree. The people of Iran are not rabid America-haters, and its leadersówhile ideologically-drivenóare not crazy. Moreover, Iran has a long and proud history, going back to the Persian Empire. Likewise, Pakistan has had a difficult history due to its multiethnic composition and often-poor leadership, as I've noted before. What got me was the real-versus-fake distinction. To be fair, he meant that Iran existed as a political entity before the modern era, while Pakistan was formed through post-colonial demarcation and the efforts of political figures like Muhammad Ali Jinnah after World War II. But the extension of this argument is that countries with a pre-modern existence will likely be more stable and friendly to the United States, while those of more recent genesis will not.
Whether or not Klein meant it, he interjected himself into a long-running debate over the origin of nations. The classic view of nations as eternally-existing entities is, while prevalent in popular discussions, not in line with contemporary scholarship. Gellner, Anderson, Kedourie and others demonstrated how nations emerged from various processes of modernity, such as industrialization, the spread of vernacular languages or political manipulation by elites. In Gellner's words, many nations do not have a navel; they emerged fully-formed from modernity, not pre-modern social groups. Of course, many disagree with this, most prominently Anthony Smith, who argues that pre-modern 'ethnies' set the stage for modern nationalism. But both sides agree that whether a contemporary nation arose from pre-modern social groups or the disruptive processes of modernity, once established none are any more 'real' than others; nations are based on the intersubjective beliefs of their members, not objective characteristics like land or genetics.
Just to recap: Klein's implication was that some nations are 'real' by virtue of pre-modern existence, and others are not as they emerged more recently. The latter group is more likely to experience instability and violence. In discussion of political reform in the Middle East, or plans to resolve the post-invasion chaos of Iraq, the supposed 'fake-ness' of countries in the region factored into assessments of what will happen and what to do about conflicts there. If the countries are 'fake,' then can a stable political system ever arise? Should we just help create new countries that are somehow less 'fake?' It's actually an interesting corollary of the 'ancient hatreds' argument; some groups have been fighting for thousands of years, and try as we might to resolve their conflicts with shiny democratic institutions, there's nothing we can do. In this case, the argument is: if some nations were never meant to be, then we can never really expect them to develop into stable democracies.
Now, again, to be fair, Klein made these comments on a morning show. He's a smart guy, but was giving a blurb on TV, not an academic lecture. And as an academic, I admit I share academia's often-irrational irritation with pundits who simplify scholarly debates. But Klein's attitude, which I'm sure is shared by others in the punditocracy and policy community, is potentially dangerous. Multi-ethnic states born of modernity can work out well, like the United States. States with ancient histories can be disruptive internationally, like Iran. And the fact that Pakistan is less than a hundred years old doesn't mean 'real' Pakistanis don't exist.
I guess it's a little much to expect pundits to peruse Imagined Communities before appearing on the morning talk shows, but it would be nice.
Robert Golan-Viella reflects on a tectonic shift in partisan foreign-policy debate, i.e., the fact that the Democrats have the upper hand. He chalks this up to campaign politics: the key to a Republican victory runs through the economy. I agree that there are "strong critiques" of Obama foreign policy and that "leading Republicans aren't making them." But I don't think this is "politically smart," insofar as leading Republicans are making attacks on Obama foreign policy–just not very good ones.
As Blake Hounshell noted on twitter of the latest broadside from the Romney campaign:
While there's plenty of room to eviscerate Obama, the Republicans have painted themselves into an ideological corner from which they're forced to make a lot of deeply questionable claims. This is what happens when you've convinced your base that the label "socialist" is broad enough to include a center-right President whose major domestic initiatives — national Romneycare, a tax-cut and infrastructure oriented stimulus, a cap-and-trade approach to reducing carbon emissions — were mainstream Republican positions only four years ago.
One lesson of this, I think, was that we didn't need all of that "security Democrat" handwringing during the first five years after 9/11. Remember all those people who were in a tizzy about how liberals and progressives needed to come up with "new thinking" to respond to the neoconservative challenge? That all looks pretty silly now. The Obama Administration's foreign policy fits pretty squarely within the broad liberal-internationalist tradition, albeit with, on some issues, a significant lean toward its "pragmatic realist" variant. Indeed, with a few exceptions — such as the aforementioned disaster that was US policy toward Georgia — the Bush administration basically abandoned neo-conservativism after the 2006 midterms.
That's not to say that we won't get another taste of neoconservative crusading bluster if Romney wins. My guess is that his impulses aren't in that direction, but foreign-policy novices often go where their advisors take them. But I think what the record of the past two decades suggests is pretty clear: Republican and Democratic foreign-policy centrists never needed to "rethink" anything. Their ideas have acquitted themselves quite well. Neo-Reaganite foreign policy? Not so much.
With sanctions and talks – and a big stick in the background – the United States and its allies are trying to curtail Tehran's nuclear programme. Australia is playing its part. Canberra recently blocked a shipment of industrial equipment to Iran. Australia's Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr, believes preventing a nuclear Iran is vital. Is he right?
Kenneth Waltz thinks not. The celebrated American political scientist says we should redefine the problem. The real difficulty in the Gulf is not Iran's nuclear ambitions, he argues. It is the fact that one state in the area (Israel) has a nuclear monopoly. An Iranian bomb would be a good thing. It would create a healthy balance of power, and restore equilibrium to an anxious region. Far from being the crisis, Waltz sees an Iranian bomb as the solution.
At this stage, his argument is hypothetical. To the best of our knowledge, it is not clear that the Islamic Republic has decided to go beyond uranium enrichment and build a bomb. It is not clear that it will. Efforts to dissuade it through economic sanctions, threats of regime change or actual military action may work. Or they may be perverse, motivating Tehran to go for weaponisation.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa against the making and use of nuclear weapons in 2005. Yet if Iran changes its mind, it has a doctrine of flexibility that it used during the Iran-Iraq war to justify starting a chemical weapons programme, allowing the needs of the Islamic Republic in extremis to trump Islamic law.
But if Iran keeps enriching to weapons-grade level, what then?
Waltz builds his case on a reading of diplomatic history. This is where the mischief lies. Claiming that the emergence of two nuclear states stabilises regions, he points approvingly to the example of India and Pakistan.
In doing so, he steps lightly over the history of standoffs, confrontations and escalations between those adversaries, whose mutual fears are worsened by ongoing clashes in disputed territories and the ambiguous role of armed proxies.
In the wake of 9/11, a Pakistani army general warned India that his country could launch a rapid nuclear attack, telling Alastair Campbell to remind the Indians: 'It takes us eight seconds to get the missiles over.' If this volatile frontier is a signpost of things to come in the Gulf, then the future is dark.
Waltz also builds his case on a rosy view of nuclear deterrence in the Cold War (1947-1989). For him, nukes have a constraining effect because of their own terrifying logic. Mutually Assured Destruction works. After all, the world has had multiple nuclear states in it since 1949, without a nuclear war.
But we have come close. In the Cold War, despite a deterrence system in a supposedly 'stable' bipolar contest, there were still a series of high-stakes 'near misses' where fear, misperception, false alarms or system errors nearly resulted in nuclear war. In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged the Kennedy Administration to attack Cuba, not knowing that Soviet combat forces possessed nuclear-tipped missiles and were authorised to use them. A Soviet submarine commander believed the war had started, and had to be dissuaded by fellow officers not to fire a nuclear torpedo. It was bad enough with two adversaries familiar with each other. A world of more nuclear states makes it harder still. We have avoided Armaggeddon through luck, not just statecraft.
So we should be cautious about Waltz's ahistorical faith in a stable deterrence system.
More deeply, we should not be narrowly obsessed with the issue of rationality and intentions. Waltz and others assure us that a nuclear Iran would be well behaved, that nukes have a constraining effect. Pessimists often claim the opposite. They fear that a nuclear Iran would be more dangerous than deterrable adversaries such as the Soviet Union, because the theocratic regime is mad and/or bad.
These fears are questionable. That the regime is homicidal does not necessarily make it suicidal. Its commitment to survival was clear during the Green uprisings of 2009. It barks aggressively, but its bite is underwhelming. Recall its hollow threat to block the Straits of Hormuz. It has sound defensive reasons to acquire a nuclear deterrent given its dangerous neighbourhood, encircled by enemy forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and now an Israeli airbase in Azerbaijan.
On the other hand, Israel could be forgiven for staying alert. Tehran has made death threats against it. It officially sponsored a holocaust denial conference. 'Death to Israel' is its populist catch cry. Do we expect a people that has been through genocide and wars of survival to dismiss such rhetoric as mere words? As a holocaust survivor once said, 'if someone says they want to kill you, believe them.' A nuclear Iran would frighten Tel Aviv, not to mention Riyadh and Cairo, however reasonable those fears would be. That in itself is dangerous.
The issue is not whether Iran or any state is mad or bad. The issue is that they are uncertain, insecure and lack full knowledge. The existential fears of Iran and Israel are strong. They have no strong dialogue in which to signal and communicate. All this is ripe for accident or error. It makes nuclear weapons a problem when they eyeball each other.
Even if Iran turned out to be a sober and responsible nuclear power, the danger would be considerable. A Gulf with two nuclear enemies in it could generate a witches' brew of fear, suspicion, sabre rattling and a fresh arms race. That could take the region – and the world – to the brink.
Cross-posted at The Offshore Balancer
Colin Kahl sent me a list of recent work he's done on the US-Iran standoff. The first is a CNAS report, Risk and Rivalry: Iran, Israel, and the Bomb (PDF). The abstract:
As Iran's nuclear progress continues and negotiations fail to reach a breakthrough, the threat of an Israeli preventive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities grows. In Risk and Rivalry: Israel, Iran and the Bomb, authors Dr. Colin H. Kahl, Melissa G. Dalton and Matthew Irvine argue that despite the abhorrent threats by some Iranian leaders to "wipe Israel off the map," the actual behavior of the Islamic Republic over the past three decades indicates that the regime is not suicidal and is sufficiently rational for nuclear deterrence. The report finds that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a much more dangerous adversary but that Iran is unlikely to deliberately use nuclear weapons, or transfer a nuclear device to terrorists to use, against Israel. The authors recommend that while preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons should remain an urgent priority, rushing into preventive war would risk making the threat worse and force should be seen as a last resort.
Jeffrey Goldberg has a good synopsis and there's an article-length version in Foreign Policy. The report and article provide good ammunition for those opposing military action but concerned about Iranian proliferation.
This is cross-posted from the University of Texas website.
As the March 6 Super Tuesday Republican primary looms, foreign policy issues understandably are likely to play a marginal role in the decisions of most voters. Since the middle of 2008, Gallup pollshave found that more than 60 percent of voters identified economic issues as the most important problem facing the country. In their February 2012 poll, for example, less than a half a percent of Americans identified either terrorism or conflict/war in the Middle East as their top concern.
Does that mean that foreign policy concerns are unimportant in the primary and the general election? Not exactly. With Osama Bin Laden and a number of other top-level terrorists dead, Democrats are hopeful that President Barack Obama has made foreign policy a non-issue. However, both the nature of the GOP primary and events may yet bring both foreign policy issues and a variety of "intermestic" (part international/part domestic) issues like gasoline prices to the fore.
GOP Primary Dynamics and Foreign Policy
All the Republican hopefuls are saying things about foreign policy on the campaign trail to try to appeal to the 8-10 percent of the party faithful that have turned out in the primaries thus far (even less in caucus states like Maine where less than 1 percent of the electorate turned out). It doesn't appear that these primary-goers are any more concerned about foreign policy than the rest of the public (the economy dominates the exit and entrance polls as the top concern), but they certainly tend to be conservative on average. In South Carolina, 68 percent of the voters self identified as very (36 percent) or somewhat conservative (32 percent). In Iowa, that combined percentage was fully 84 percent.
With a conservative leaning electorate and foreign policy concerns only weakly salient, the default position for most of the Republican candidates appears to be the old stand-by of being strong on defense. In practice, this means opposing any cuts to defense spending, supporting continued military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and potentially backing a new military conflict with Iran.
Front-runner Mitt Romney has used the charged language of "appeasement" in describing the Obama administration. Governor Romney's language seems to be emblematic of the wider GOP field's effort to use harsh rhetoric in describing President Obama. Perhaps the candidates feel compelled to make up for the enthusiasm gapthat has emerged as Republicans survey the candidates they have before them.
Ultimately, I think this hyperbole on foreign policy will ultimately fall flat in the general election. For the first time in recent memory, the GOP enjoys a semi-serious anti-war candidate in Congressman Ron Paul. At a time when even Republican primary voters overwhelmingly are concerned about the state of the U.S. economy, it's unclear whether pledges by the leading candidates to ratchet up defense spending and sustain expensive military engagements are popular with the party base.
Events: A Week is A Long Time in Politics
Even if foreign policy seemingly is a secondary concern in the upcoming election, events on the world stage may change that calculation. Among the issues, the situation in Iran in particular threatens to bring foreign policy front and center.
Relations over Iran's nuclear program have deteriorated such that observers are increasingly talking about whether or not Israel will launch an attack on Iran, potentially drawing in the United States.
Bipartisan legislative efforts have sought to restrict the President's room for maneuver with respect to Iran. One piece of legislation in the Senate rejects any containment policy of a nuclear Iran, which would make it almost impossible for the U.S. not to go to war with Iran if it did in fact possess nuclear weapons. These maneuvers and others may box the president in, making conflict more likely or triggering some other effects that could upend the country's fragile recovery.
For example, the sanctions bill that passed the Senate in late 2011 was intended to force the president to cut off any public or private institution from access to the United States if it does business with Iran's central bank. The president was to decide by the end of February whether to impose these rules, subject to some discretion about the volume of oil in the market and whether states have reduced their oil transactions with Iran. Just last week, the administration deferred actionpending further investigation.
With Europe to begin an embargo on Iran's oil by July 1 and Iran saber rattling about cutting off oil supplies to other European countries, oil prices may spike. As the U.S. economy has shown signs of recovery, the Republican candidates have pivoted to talk about rising gas prices as one of their key issues. Soaring gas prices may pose both a threat to the recovery and the president's re-election. Newt Gingrich, in an effort to energize his faltering campaign, has pledged to restore $2.50 a gallon gas.
So, even as domestic issues loom large, the nature of the Republican primary and world events over the summer may make foreign policy a more pressing concern come fall. We'll have to see how it all plays out.
The CFR public-relations office certainly thinks they've got a winner in the "attack Iran debate." Here's a video of the recent "live" debate between Colin and Matt on the subject.
SECOND UPDATE: In case anybody thought that this was anything other than a National Journal fail, it it turns out that Matt himself was instrumental in getting Deazen to correct the story.
Yochi J. Deazen of the National Journal details a high-level fight in the Administration about whether or not to attack Iran. His evidence? The juxtaposition of Matt Kroenig's and Colin Kahl's pieces in Foreign Affairs.
Now, however, competing essays by Matthew Kroenig and Colin Kahl, who just stepped down as the Pentagon's top two Mideast policy officials, are offering an unusual look inside the White House deliberations about how far to go to stop Iran. With American-Iranian tensions rising by the day, the essays in Foreign Affairs—one making the case for striking Iran and one making the case against—illustrate why the U.S. and its allies are having such a difficult time deciding how to respond to Iran's ongoing progress toward building a nuclear bomb. The White House declined comment on the essays.
Kroenig, one of the protagonists in the debate, left the Pentagon last summer after serving as a special adviser on Iran policy to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The title of his essay, "Time to Attack Iran," leaves no doubt about his thinking.
For reasons that I detailed in my earlier post, this is bull$h*t.
Matt was not a "special advisor to Robert Gates." He describes himself as having been a "special adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense." He was engaged in advisory activities in International Security Affairs-Middle East, a division within OSD(P). But Deazen's description is ludicrous. As an IPA in ISA-ME, Matt was beneath (at least) a Director and a Principal Director, although I'm sure he had direct access to his DASD, Colin Kahl. Next in the chain of command was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDASD), followed by the Assistant Secretary of Defense (ASD) for ISA, then the Undersecretary…. you get the picture. To be blunt, The piece still implies that Matt was an administration official and that he "stepped down" from his position. In reality, his one-year fellowship ran out. [T]o the extent that their is a constituency favoring military action against Iran, Matt's views are his own—they say nothing about the state of play in the Obama Administration.
Foreign Affairs has gone live with Colin Kahl's explanation of why we shouldn't commence bombing in five minutes. A sample:
In arguing for a six-month horizon, Kroenig also misleadingly conflates hypothetical timelines to produce weapons-grade uranium with the time actually required to construct a bomb. According to 2010 Senate testimony by James Cartwright, then vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and recent statements by the former heads of Israel's national intelligence and defense intelligence agencies, even if Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a bomb in six months, it would take it at least a year to produce a testable nuclear device and considerably longer to make a deliverable weapon. And David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (and the source of Kroenig's six-month estimate), recently told Agence France-Presse that there is a "low probability" that the Iranians would actually develop a bomb over the next year even if they had the capability to do so. Because there is no evidence that Iran has built additional covert enrichment plants since the Natanz and Qom sites were outed in 2002 and 2009, respectively, any near-term move by Tehran to produce weapons-grade uranium would have to rely on its declared facilities. The IAEA would thus detect such activity with sufficient time for the international community to mount a forceful response. As a result, the Iranians are unlikely to commit to building nuclear weapons until they can do so much more quickly or out of sight, which could be years off.
There's no question in my mind that Colin gets the better of Matt in this debate, but I think a bit of background might be of interest to Duck readers.
Colin (who is literally "one of the smartest guys in the room") recently stepped down as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for the Middle East in the Office of the Secretary of Defense(Policy). Matt had an International Affairs Fellowship (IAF) during the 2010-2011 academic year; Colin arranged for Matt to spend the fellowship in his office. Matt worked there part time, as I understand it, writing and assisting with analytic reports. I did a similar stint in Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia (RUE), although I did less analytic work and more backfill. In other words, Matt was basically a high-level intern and Colin was his boss. That, of course, doesn't invalidate Matt's arguments–they rise and fall on their own. But it does provide some reason to put more faith in Colin's expertise (and hands-on knowledge of) Iranian-US security dynamics than in Matt's.
My colleague, Matt Kroenig, has generated a ton of buzz (and not a little vitriol) for his Foreign Affairs piece in which he advocates imminent US military action against Iran. What's probably less well known, however, is that Matt and Mike Weintraub, a graduate student at Georgetown, have a working paper in which, as they write:
We argue that nuclear superiority, by increasing the expected costs of conflict, improves a state's ability to deter potential adversaries. We then show that states that enjoy nuclear superiority over their opponents are less likely to be the targets of militarized challenges. Arguments that contend that a minimum deterrent posture is sufficient to deter militarized challenges do not find support in the data.
As I've been discussing with Matt on Facebook, I see a real tension between these findings and claims that a nuclear Iran poses such a grave danger to US national interests that Washington must, as soon as possible, launch a military strike against Iranian facilities. After all, if Matt and Mike are correct then we should expect both that the massive asymmetric nuclear advantage enjoyed by the US will deter Iran, and that Iran's possession of a few nukes will not greatly alter its behavior.
If I am right, then Matt joins a long line of international-relations academics whose policy advocacy doesn't entirely cohere with their scholarship. For example, a significant number of offensive realists signed letters opposing the Iraq war, even though their theories suggest that states should, and will, maximize power in the international system.
Given all this, I'm curious what other Duck readers and writers think should be the relationship between academic scholarship and policy advocacy.
UPDATE: Matt weighs in below on the substantive merits. Someone also pointed to a draft of Matt's forthcoming piece, which I think reinforces the questions I raise, insofar as it is an example of an academic paper with policy recommendations. For example:
Given that the most likely conflict scenarios between these two states would occur in the Middle East, the balance of political stakes in future confrontations would tend to favor Tehran. The brinkmanship approach adopted in this paper concurs that proliferation in Iran would disadvantage the United States by forcing it to compete with Iran in risk taking, rather than in more traditional arenas. On the other hand, the findings of this paper also suggest that the United States could fare well in future nuclear crises. As long as the United States maintains nuclear superiority over Iran, a prospect that seems highly likely for years to come, Washington will frequently be able to achieve its basic goals in nuclear confrontations with Tehran.
As we all agree, Matt's model points to increased risk. But do such conclusions really support the notion that the United States must strike immediately or face apocalyptic consequences?
Born Newton Leroy McPherson, the man now simply known as "Newt Gingrich" has been surging in the latest opinion polls asking Republican voters to identify their preferred presidential candidate. He also recently won the endorsement of the Manchester Union Leader, which 538's Nate Silver finds to be important in the early New Hampshire primary:
This analysis finds that The Union Leader's endorsement has been highly statistically significant in helping to explain the voting results. Consistent with the simpler averaging method that we used before, it pegs the endorsement as having roughly an 11-percentage-point impact.
Academic readers of this blog may well know that Gingrich, as one scholar described him, is "a card-carrying member of the overeducated elite….Gingrich holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Modern European History from Tulane University in New Orleans." He had a tenure-track job at West Georgia College in the 1970s, though he was denied tenure and took up politics full-time.
Today, someone put Gingrich's dissertation on the internet. Feel free to bookmark and read later the former House Speaker's lengthy take on "Belgian Education Policy in the Congo, 1945-1960." Since I don't have time in the near-term to read this tome myself, I'm dependent upon the prior work of Laura Seay, a young scholar now at Morehouse College, who actually reviewed this work in 2009:
I finally sucked it up and headed to the basement microfilm room in the library to read Gingrich's dissertation. (When I say "read" here, I mean, of course, that I skimmed through until I found something interesting.)
Seay reports quite a bit of detail about Gingrich's dissertation on her blog post. I won't spoil too much of her review (read it yourself), but the take home point is relatively important:
The whole thing is kind of a glorified white man's burden take on colonial policy that was almost certainly out of vogue in the early 1970's.
I mention this point because I'm reminded of something ridiculous candidate Gingrich said about Barack Obama in September 2010 to National Review Online:
"What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anticolonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."
Now that we know about Gingrich's early work as an historian, I ask the following questions:
What if Gingrich is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Belgian, pro-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? What if that is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior?
For related discussion, see this on Libya, this on Iran, and this on the latest in Afghanistan and Pakistan, etc.
If the news reports are correct, the diplomatic maneuver comes only a few months after India abandoned the practice of paying for its crude oil imports from Iran through the Tehran based Asian Clearing Union, a central bank clearing mechanism, apparently under direct pressure from President Obama. India was so hasty in acceding to US demands that it failed to set an alternate mechanism in place or even to consult private petroleum importers. India asked Iran to find a set of banks that were not under US sanctions in order to reroute financial payments. For its part, Iran did not retaliate and continued to supply crude oil on credit to India until a new payment arrangement was agreed through branches of both countries' state owned banks in Germany. Iran is the largest single supplier of crude oil to India (importing ~$12 billion / per year), and India still has plans to invest heavily in Iranian oil and gas fields.
India has also abstained from voting on Iran's human rights situation in the UN Human Rights Council and it voted in 2010 in support of the IAEA censure of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. The latter vote elicited a "nasty" letter from the Iranian government even though India had tried to indicate that it did not support punitive sanctions and favored dialog (PTI, 5/17/2010). The censure vote reinforced a decision in 2005 by India to support taking the issue of Iran's nuclear enrichment program to the UN Security Council. Although India might ideally prefer to retain its friendship with Iran, India appears to be signalling a shift toward further alignment within the American orbit at the expense of its ties to Iran.
A portion of the tension between India and Iran may also relate to technical details in the proposed IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India Pipeline) project. India wanted Iran should to guarantee delivery of gas across Pakistani territory and Iran has been unresponsive (Doordarshan, 5/15/2010). However, these disputes are likely to be a consequences of India's position at the IAEA rather a completely separate point of contention.
In addition to the fact that India's partnership with the US has already begun to provide dividends, India's foreign policy establishment must also weigh the value of its growing security ties with Israel as well as robust economic relations with the Persian Gulf countries relative to the value of potential future energy imports from Iran. Indian non-oil trade with the GCC countries (~$24 billion) dwarfs its non-oil trade with Iran (~$5 billion). The GCC countries also supply approximately 2/3 of India's oil imports and are a major source of remittance income (Indian Express 8/9/2007). Finally, as a permanent member of the IAEA Board of Governors, India has a strong interest to defend its own reputation as a responsible nuclear power in order to legitimate its own questionable entry into the nuclear armed club.
If the shift in Indian foreign policy continues, it will be tantamount to a retreat from its considerable efforts to stabilize Afghanistan (India is the 5th largest donor to Afghanistan). It is already evident that the Delaram-Zaranj road built by Indian paramilitary forces at considerable risk and cost in Western Afghanistan to reduce Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan has been taken over by Taliban militants. Lowering India's profile in Afghanistan marginally harms America's objective of stabilizing Afghanistan, particularly as India remains one of the most favored donor countries among Afghans.
American policy toward Iran, which is almost exclusively a reflection of the interests of allies in West Asia, may come at the expense of stability in South Asia. Although Iran has no interest in destabilizing its eastern neighbor, American attempts to isolate Iran diplomatically mean that an opportunity to use the stabilizing influence of a Muslim majority state which has historically had tremendous influence among Dari speaking Afghans and a strong anti-Taliban disposition are being squandered.
The US and Iran were able to work together in 2001 to help overthrow the Taliban. And despite some reports of munitions from Iran being shipped to insurgents (none of which have been successfully traced back to the Iranian government), Iran has mostly acted as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan — even allegedly supplying direct cash support to the Karzai regime. In fact, as Ambassador James Dobbins has recounted, it was the Iranians who reminded the Americans at the Bonn conference that the new Afghan constitution really ought to mention the word "democracy" at least once. And for all of the moralizing American rhetoric about women's rights, it is also worth recalling that in the early years of the Taliban, when the US sought to cozy up to the brutal movement to secure pipeline contracts, only the Iranians championed the rights of Afghan women which were being trampled. This is not to argue that the Iranian regime's record on democratic governance, human rights, and civil rights is without very serious problems, but it is to show that Iran is not America's "other."
A more balanced US foreign policy toward Iran (which would also give India greater political and diplomatic room for maneuver), despite decades of animosity and the potential for further horizontal nuclear proliferation, is most likely in the best interest of the US and most of the regional players in South and Central Asia. Iran could also contribute by climbing down from its current position on nuclear enrichment.
In 1991, with the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse, the rump regime of Mohammad Najibullah finally cut a deal with Iran. The Iranians were allowed to supply the Hazarajat in central Afghanistan with armaments and other goods through direct flights to Bamiyan in exchange for supplying petroleum to western Afghanistan, including to the Kabul regime's military forces. The arrangement provided Tehran with unfettered access to an area which since 1981 was increasingly under its patronage. The Iranians hoped that they would be able to use this access to strengthen their proxies (i.e. Hezb-i Wahdat) in the conflict against Saudi backed Sunni groups (see Rubin 1995, p. 264). Throughout the tumultuous period that followed, Iran continued to expand its influence in western and central Afghanistan.
The deal highlighted the dependency of the Kabul regime on Tehran for petroleum and Iran's stake in the character of the government in Afghanistan. Twenty years later, Iran is again flexing its muscles in Afghanistan through petroleum politics. Iran's decision to block (at least) 700 Afghan owned fuel trucks from transiting to western Afghanistan has resulted in a major spike in fuel prices just as winter sets in. Fuel prices in Herat are at an eight year high. Afghanistan has witnessed several protests directed against Iran in recent days.
Why is Iran doing this now?
Professor Juan Cole argues that Iran's decision is a response to the US led sanctions regime imposed through the United Nations. Through Iran's chairmanship of OPEC and its supply links to western Afghanistan, Iran can directly punish the Americans and reap a windfall profit. Iran will not allow OPEC to meet to revise production quotas which might ease the current price of petroleum. By halting fuel supplies to western Afghanistan through a virtual blockade, Afghanistan will have to rely primarily on a supply route through Pakistan which is vulnerable to Taliban attacks. Some supplies could also come through Uzbekistan, but Iranian officials have apparently also limited shipment through that route according to Afghan traders. Iran assumes that this will further impair the American occupation. And while ordinary Afghans will also suffer, Iran does not appear to be intentionally targeting the civilian population (although there are some speculative arguments that Iran is unhappy that the TAPI pipeline was not also routed through its territory). As Cole points out the Iranian strategy is brilliant: American consumers will compensate Iran for the sanctions regime and Iran will have the added bonus of making life difficult for the US in Afghanistan.
The only problem with the strategy is that if Iran persists in blocking fuel supplies, it will lose influence within Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned that it will seek to cut trade ties with Iran if the fuel trucks are not allowed to enter Afghanistan. Afghans argue that by international law, since much of the fuel was apparently purchased in Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan, the Iranians do not have the right to stop the flow of these goods particularly as they do not constitute a direct threat to Iran's security. However, Afghanistan remains reliant on the goodwill of its neighbors to keep supply routes open. Afghanistan is again caught in the struggle between foreign powers and ordinary Afghans will bear the brunt of the suffering.
[Cross-posted from my Afghan Notebook]
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