Citizens! Robert Heinlein was truly gifted, but it doesn't take a genius to see that Starship Troopers, first published in 1959, is a handbook for the present. We see it in the constant stream of patriotic, flame-fanning war news from all of the competing U.S. networks, the visions of "success" and "achievement" and "progress." We see simple heroes made of our soldiers, cameras cradling their young faces, and rolling their comments of "I'm proud of what we are doing here" and "It's the right thing for America." Like little children stomping insects in the movie version, recruiting for war with, … Continue reading Starship Troopers