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.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

And The Western Winner Of The Iraq War Is...

By Steve Hynd


It's become fairly conventional wisdom that the regional winner of the Iraq war was Iran, which now has its pensioners in control of the Iraqi central government and - theoretically - all that oil. Kurds and Sunnis may have something to say about that, however, especially once Odierno stops fantasizing about staying forever and the U.S. finally withdraws.


However, the signs are that the Western nation most poised to make gains from the aftermath of the Iraq war is France. Today, the French and Iraqi governments announced some deals which are only a start of greater partnership.



Iraq and France have reached several "important" pacts on ordnance and defense personnel exchange, the visiting Iraqi Defense Minister Abdelkader Jassem al-Obeidi announced Wednesday.


"Iraq has accepted many important French armaments," Obeidi said at French Defense Ministry with his French counterpart Herv Morin at side.

Following an order of 24 transport helicopters EC 635, worth around 500 million U.S. dollars, from France in March, Iraq are engaging in "other types of armaments" this time, Obeidi said without elaboration.

The Iraqi minister regarded France-Iraq cooperation as "the rapidest and simplest way for Iraq to recover capability to defend its air space, territorial sea and territory."


The Iraqi President was also amazingly forthcoming:



Speaking of oil exploitation industry in Iraq, Talabani said "the system of auctions isn't solely based on figures. We might give preference to the figure coming from a French company."


Talabani spoke out favor for the French energy giant Total. "We would like to see Total working on our oil deposits."


Capitalizing on local disenchantment with Britain and America post-war, France has also made important deals with other Gulf states: a military base in the UAE and defence pacts to protect both the UAE and Qatar, as well as nuclear power offers to both of those and to the Saudis, Libyans and Algerians. Along with the multi-billion potential income from those agreements comes an opportunity for French power projection as the alternative to the American big dog.


And while its ironic that the "cheese eating surrender monkeys", as the U.S. right labelled the French, are making out well from post-Iraq War situation in the Gulf, the suspicion has to be that this is exactly what France's long-term plan was all along when it refused to get involved in Bush's misadventure.



Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

1 comment:

  1. amerikan sheeple go baaaaaahNovember 19, 2009 at 9:41 AM

    ...the suspicion has to be that this is exactly what France's long-term plan was all along when it refused to get involved in cheney / bush's misadventure.
    yeah, so ? what is your point ? at least the french are not murderous war criminal bastards like cheney / bush and the vast amerikan war machine.
    suck. on. this.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)