The Dark Side of "Soldier of Fortune" Magazine: Contract Killers and Mercenaries for Hire

[SecularMotion]

When I was in sixth grade my parents took away my collection of Soldier of Fortune magazines. This was in the mid-1980s, the Rambo-era heyday of the "journal of the professional adventurer." The seizure was preceded by a parent-teacher conference at which exhibit A was a recent two-page essay I'd written about wanting to be a mercenary when I grew up. Or a ninja.

I remember Soldier of Fortune articles in those days being a macho-to-the-max amalgam of firearms reviews, anti-gun control rants, Vietnam POW conspiracy theories and gory first-hand reporting on Cold War proxy wars, military coups and revolutions in Second and Third World nations. But what made Soldier of Fortune so enticing in my 11-year-old mind was less its editorial content than its infamous advertising.

Along with ads for mail-order brides, bounty hunter training manuals, surveillance electronics, Secrets of the Ninja lessons (including "mind clouding" and "sentry removal&quot , Nazi memorabilia, machine guns, silencers, and sniper rifles, Soldier of Fortune advertised the services of guns for hire.

"It's directed at professional mercenaries -- men who will fight for pay and those who want to hire them," wrote Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko in March 1984. "But since mercenaries represent only a tiny portion of the reading population, the magazine tries to broaden its appeal to include those who might be called war fans, weapon-lovers, fanatic anti-commies and Walter Mitty types who enjoy the vicarious thrill of reading about blood and guts."

http://www.alternet.org/story/152413/the_dark_side_of_%22soldier_of_fortune%22_magazine%3A_contract_killers_and_mercenaries_for_hire

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I knew a Vietnam Vet who was eager to be hired as a mercenary.

He didn't follow through with it but he was looking at getting a job with some a RW group in South Africa that wanted to overthrow Mandela and return the country to apartheid.

He didn't consider the ethics. It was like being on the A-Team and returning to a military family which was the only thing that made sense to him as a trained sniper.

[marble falls]

2. Forgot all about SoF. Unhappy to see its success.

[ileus]

3. 2011...awesome spam

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. What's awesome is...

...this author wrote, in 2011, about his experience 30 years ago. The OP does the usual copy/paste of this with principle objection to events in the '80s.

I'm missing something. "Discuss gun politics, gun control laws, the Second Amendment, the use of firearms for self-defense, and the use of firearms to commit crime and violence." I'm not really seeing the 'on topic' part of this whole thread.

[SecularMotion]

8. The subject was raised in another thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172187657

I found some background material that might be helpful.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

9. Oh? I hadn't noticed.

[Eleanors38]

11. "It is... very old... wine" -- Bela Lugosi.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

12. Also from the great BL

"I never drink... wine."

[Duckhunter935]

4. I thought you posted this last week?

Google spam must be getting hard for you to find.

[TeddyR]

5. How does this relate

To the 2d Amendment?

[DonP]

7. They couldn't get the other thread closed, so this is the "revenge", such as it is.

Doesn't have to follow the SoP if gun control is having a bad day, week ... or decade or two.

[DonP]

10. You haven't heard? The Reagan era is over, it's 2016

Maybe you lost your calendar, since you seem to love posting antique articles, as if they're somehow relevant?

It's not the '80's and as much as you might want to see Journey on top of the charts again and make mix tapes. The world has moved on.

Things have gotten much better, much lower rates of violent crime, more freedom. Much to be happy about, but control minded folks seem to ignore the falling crime rate and keep caterwauling about something.