‘Soldier of Misfortune’

The Times, clearly anxious to avoid any real investigatory responsibility for its own ad revenue, had adopted an attitude toward Soldier of Fortune which is either naive or hypocritical.

If you have really read this bizarre publication, you know its editors never met a low-intensity Third World war they didn’t like. You know the readership includes white supremacists and deranged Walter Mitty clones who wind up in Angolan jails or drilling with the Contras on farms in Central America.

If you’ve ever attended a Soldier of Fortune convention, you’ve felt the uniformed violence bubbling just below the surface, seen the charming T-shirts with their inspirational message “Kill em all and let God sort ‘em out,” watched 40-year-old little boys in unfamiliar combat jeans waving AKs about.

You know then that the killer’s ad seeking a “high-tech assignment” employed a code familiar to Soldier of Fortune readers. It means, “If the money’s right, I’ll break the law to earn it.” The man who placed the ad knew that, the man who answered the ad knew that, the publisher knew that.

Perhaps The Times knows that too. If you did, your editorial is hypocritical. If you didn’t, it’s naive.

DENNY SHANAHAN

Torrance