Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

5 Die In Sadr City Clash

By Cernig



UPI is reporting that there's been a clash between US troops and militants in Sadr City, resulting in 5 deaths. But recent reports suggested that Sadrists and the Iraqi government had made a deal which included keeping US forces out of the area - and US commanders had indicated they were "following the Iraqi lead" on this.

Fighting between U.S. troops and militant forces in Baghdad's Sadr City killed five people and wounded eight, Iraq's Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The fighting occurred in Sadr City's Fadhailiya district, scene of several clashes between U.S.- and Iraqi-led forces and supporters of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, CNN reported.

Since a cease-fire was reached this month, violence in Sadr City has dropped, the Interior Ministry official said.

Some Mahdi Army folks in Sadr City are going to be pissed about this, which seems to be a breach of the ceasefire deal, and I suppose it might mean an end to the precarious truce in Baghdad. While that would increase violence again, it would give the Iraqi government, now with 10,000 troops and armor in residence, an excuse for a crackdown of the kind which has so helped give Maliki his new "hard man" reputation after years of being seen as weak and inefectual. Then again, Sadr has been pushing a new, softer and non-violent look recently - obviously intending to share common cause with Grand Ayatollah Sistani against permanent US bases as well as looking to give his rivals no reason to outlaw his movement before provincial elections.



My guess is this incident alone won't destroy the truce - but that Maliki has far more reason to provoke an end to it than Sadr has. However, there's also a danger that further disaffected Mahdi Army groups might splinter off from the main movement, return to violence, and provoke a massive Iraqi and US military response. That would enable Maliki to tar all Sadr's movement with the same brush while seriously weakening Sadr's hold over his own people. Sadr's best hope in such a situation would be to ruthlessly police his own firebrands in private while clinging close to Sistani's shadow publicly.



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