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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Friday, September 10, 2010

Burnt Korans? What About Murder Rings?

By Steve Hynd


As my Twittering pal Keith Boyea notes, we've been treated to an awful lot of news reports and media pontification about one wingnut's plan to burn Korans - media attention that has created blowback in the form of mass demonstrations in Afghanistan in which one person has died and over a dozen have been injured.


But rather more under the radar, at least in terms of media punditry, is the story of the 12 Stryker Brigade soldiers who are alleged to have run a murder ring in Afghanistan, even keeping trophies such as fingers and a skull.


This too is a massive COIN fail. There's an old salesman's adage that a satisfied customer will tell three people but an unsatisfied customer will tell ten. That adage applies to COIN but with bells on!


I keep wondering why the punditocracy hasn't said more about this story. Is it because we've already picked over the options before - rogue "bad apples" or systemic problem with militaries and occupations - and each decided which explanation suits us best? There have been Abu Graib, Iraq atrocities, Gitmo, Afghan convoy massacres...


So, in a sense the Stryker Brigade story isn't new. But it's sure to have an impact in Afghanistan and in the wider world - one that probably means other people, some of them American soldiers, will die. Surely that makes it worth talking about again.



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