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, February 13, 2010

That Scary Al Qaeda Navy

By Steve Hynd


From the annals of American foreign policy stupidity:



The US today delivered 48 field artillery cannons and five maritime patrol boats to Pakistan's security forces as part of the ongoing military cooperation between the two allies in the war against terror.


Because the ability to lob huge shells from miles away is an essential part of population-centric COIN? Because that Al Qaeda Navy is just plain scary?



The delivery marked the completion of a deal to provide 115 artillery cannons to Pakistan under the US Foreign Military Sales programme.


The deal initiated in 2006 enabled Pakistan to obtain the cannons at a "greatly discounted rate".


Arming both sides of one of the most potentially dangerous arms races in the world is stupid on the face of it, even if it only means that Pakistan would lose to India a little slower (Bob Gates' excuse as to why it's OK, honest). But then you realise that these "greatly discounted" purchases are funded by the U.S. Foreign Military Financing program, whereby the DoD gives the money to Pakistan in the first place, and it all clicks into place. The danger of a war between two nuclear armed powers is nothing compared to the opportunities offered for some backdoor welfare statism aimed at the military-industrial complex.



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3 comments:

  1. Aman SharmaFebruary 13, 2010 at 5:21 AM

    The subcontinent is paying a heavy price for the US policy of keeping the Pakistan Army happy. This is when the Pakistan Army has made umpteen excuses to avoid fighting the Afghan Taliban.
    Such supplies of arms to Pakistan only emboldens the military/Jihadi complex there to carry out unabated its proxy war against India, to make her bleed with a thousand cuts.

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  2. emptyFebruary 13, 2010 at 6:37 AM

    One of the functions of the various wars is transfer of money from the US taxpayer to the defense industry. As such, this particular transaction makes complete sense.

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  3. M. BouffantFebruary 13, 2010 at 11:00 AM

    In a slight defense of the "maritime patrol boats," they might be able to stop things like the Mumbai attacks, the official story, at least, being that they infiltrated by sea from Pakistan.
    Of course, it all depends on the intentions of the Pakistani forces.
    As I said, a slight defense.

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