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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Saturday, September 5, 2009

The New New Afghan Nation Building Mission

By Steve Hynd


Talk about mission creep. Forget about denying Al Qaeda safe havens.



"One of our primary objectives is consolidation of a government and society that are stable, secure and confident enough to be an effective partner of the U.S. "


Straight from an unclassified memo from Gen. Karl Eikenberry, US ambassador to Afghanistan.


Anyone happy with that mission? Anyone happy that we were told something entirely different back in March and have gotten there by increments that stifled real debate about whether it was a good idea?


Anyone want to take a guess at how long it will take, if it's attainable at all? Anyone from the neoliberal or neocon cheerleader sections, especially? Bueller...?



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2 comments:

  1. AlexSeptember 5, 2009 at 10:26 AM

    Success of any mission like this is just not gonna happen!!
    this shows just how brazenly contemptuous of the public our government really is and is becoming more so!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve HyndSeptember 5, 2009 at 4:30 PM

    Hi Alex,
    It's been a bipartisan contempt for the public, that's for sure.
    Regards, Steve

    ReplyDelete

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