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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Soft Targets - Dean Ing - 1978 |
| 2005-06-29 |
| I am in the process of cleaning my basement and came across Dean Ing's scifi novel "Soft Targets" (copyright 1978). I said to my self - "Yes! That's the reason to be snarky and insulting toward the enemy in places like Rantburg". But, enough of me. Look what Larry Niven said in Sept. 2003: My favorite of his novels is Soft Targets. If I tried to describe the premise, you wouldn't believe me. It's up-to-the-minute relevant. I just can't quite believe it would work. To quote the 1979 blurb in ANALOG: Dean Ing's SOFT TARGETS is not science fiction. Or is it? It deals with a modern problem -- international terrorism -- and does it without positing any new technology. Id does however, propose a solution that is clasic in the "What if ...?" line. What if the media started ridiculing the terrorists? The story is both excellent and gripping. Do not read it when alone. --ANALOG Dean's hero was a Johnny Carson type who made more and more fun of the terror chiefs every night until they got too enraged and sloppy... If anybody is curious I can scan in Dean's Afterword written for the ACE paperback printing that came out shortly after the IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #1 The problem is the Johnny Carson types are producing the exact propaganda the jihadis need: representing the US government as Darth Vader like in intention, and Laurel-and-Hardy-like in competence. One of their biggest propaganda coups comes from the fact that we have taken as virtual prisoners-of-war the sort of people who would have been shot instead of taken prisoner in previous wars like WW2. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-06-29 15:39 |