Terran marines invade Brae. The Intelligence officer, Flandry, and his escort walk "...through smashed ruins." (
I, p. 304) (For full reference, see
here.) A Braean sniper in a house kills a marine. His comrades destroy the house, then "...another house or two for good measure." (
I, p. 306) It is an invariable rule to obliterate when a marine is killed. (
I, p. 305) The sergeant of Flandry's escort describes Braeans resisting the invasion as "'...terrorists...'" (
I, p 304) An armed nation-state has capacity for far greater terror than a sniper resisting it.
Growing up in post-War Britain, I confused germs with Germans because I "knew" that both were bad. Recently, a Muslim primary school pupil told Government investigators of "radicalization" that she lived in a "terrorist house." Further investigation revealed that she meant a "terraced" house. She "knew" that the word "terrorist" was applicable.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm sorry, but here my sympathy is for the Marines not the Braean sniper. It was plain that, despite the wrong being done by the Empire, it was impossible for the Braeans to defeat it. What good did such random sniping DO? The sniper was killed and the Marines were not defeated. Futile!
I thought it interesting how a child who only knew English as a second language confused "terrorist" with "terraced." A COMPETENT investigator would make sure he understood what the person he was questioning MEANT.
Sean
(Previous version deleted due to a typo I didn't catch during preview.)
"They don't have a chance," he'd said, half-sick. "But they keep on fighting."
"Yes; stupid of them, isn't it?" Harkaman, beside him, had said.
"What would you do in their place?"
"Fight. Try to kill as many Space Vikings as I could before they got me. Terro-humans are all stupid like. That's why we're human."
— Space Viking, H. Beam Piper, the protagonist's first Viking raid.
Futile, yes. But also human.
Kaor, DAVID!
Or, at least in this case, human like!
Sean
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