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, August 26, 2009

We Have A Tunnel But No End And No Light

Commentary By Ron Beasley



As we have seen the much hyped Afghan election was not only a farce but may have actually made things worse.  And now we have this:



U.S. deaths in Afghanistan headed for another record

With the deaths of four U.S. soldiers Tuesday, the U.S.-led NATO
coalition in Afghanistan now has lost more troops this year than in all
of 2008, and August is on track to be the deadliest month for American
troops there since U.S. operations began nearly eight years ago.


The numbers reflect the rising pace of combat in Afghanistan and come
at a difficult time, just as Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S.
commander in Afghanistan, is considering asking for more U.S. troops
even as opinion polls show that a majority of Americans think the war
in Afghanistan isn't worth the cost.

Underscoring
the deteriorating situation, a massive explosion late Tuesday shook the
southern city of Kandahar, leveling dozens of businesses as people were
breaking the daylong fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

.......

In July, 45 U.S. troops died in Afghanistan, the highest monthly
toll this year. So far in August, 40 Americans have died, many in the
south, and Pentagon officials say privately that with nearly a week
left in the month, they expect August to exceed July's number.
Americans make up the majority of the 63 coalition troops killed so far
this month; 75 coalition soldiers died in July.

In 2008, total
coalition deaths were 294, 155 of whom were Americans; the 2009 total
through Tuesday was 295, of whom 172 were Americans.

Deeper and deeper into the tunnel with no end.  It's now Obama's quagmire.



1 comment:

  1. This isn't a tunnel; it's the Big Muddy, and we're already chest deep.

    ReplyDelete