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.


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

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Karzai Asks NATO To Stop Operations

By Steve Hynd


Is Afghanistan a sovereign nation or not? I guess we'll find out. During a meeting in Kunar to discuss recent civilian deaths including those of children, President Karzai said:



"On behalf of you and the Afghan people, today I would like to respectfully, and not arrogantly, ask Nato and the US forces to stop their operations in our land"



Karzai urged NATO to take its fight elsewhere, to "the places that we have been showing them in the last 9 years" - i.e. Pakistan.


I don't think Petraeus will be pleased. This is a quantum jump over Karzai's comments last November that NATO should "scale down" operation, and those comments got the Viceroy's panties all in a twist.


Somehow, I don't think NATO will stop. As Viceroy Petraeus, Obama and SecDef Gates have all reminded us in the last year, we pay lip-service to Afghan sovereignty but don't actually believe in it.



Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

2 comments:

  1. Ron BeasleyMarch 13, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    For Domestic consumption - politicians are politicians even in Afghanistan. I wouldn't read much into it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Francesco SEO ReportMarch 14, 2011 at 10:55 PM

    I doubt NATO will stop, the whole thing is just crazy and I think they should be pulled out instantly. No more innocent people need to die
    Frankie

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)