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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Thursday, May 29, 2008

The New Crusaders

By Ron Beasley



Cernig touched on this below but I think it deserves a little more attention.



Iraqis claim Marines are pushing Christianity in Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq � At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.



Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.



He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."



"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd been given the coins, too, he said.

The vast majority of the Iraqis already hate the American occupiers and this is like throwing gasoline on the fire.  Anything that further alienates the Iraqi population threatens the lives of US troops even more than they are threatened now.  The military says it will investigate but I'm sure the investigation will be like all the others and concentrate on some enlisted men. But it wouldn't have happened without the knowledge and help of a high ranking officer or two.  If they were to find that officer I would bet you would find someone with ties to some Christian Taliban group in the US.



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4 comments:

  1. CernigMay 29, 2008 at 9:05 AM

    Hi Ron,
    An update says the US military has confirmed the story.
    The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in the Iraqi city of Fallujah was passing out coins with Gospel verses on them to Sunni Muslims, a U.S. military spokesman in Fallujah told McClatchy Thursday.
    "It did happen," said Mike Isho, a spokesman for Multi National Forces West. "It's one guy and we're investigating."
    Regards, C

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ron BeasleyMay 29, 2008 at 12:04 PM

    Thanks Cernig but I find it hard to believe it was one Marine working in a vacumm. Where did he get the "coins"? I doubt that he minted them himself. It sounds like this has been going on for awhile - who was simply ignoring the practice? It does sound like your standard military investigation however.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CernigMay 29, 2008 at 12:13 PM

    Oh agreed, Ron. I've seen reports about how disproportionate the evangelicals are as a military demographic. Some put it as high as 70% of the officer corps.
    Regards, C

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mike LameyerAugust 14, 2008 at 6:52 PM

    You go men.

    ReplyDelete

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