Find the word definition

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
soft target
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ First, Barak was no soft target.
Wiktionary
soft target

n. An undefended civilian target attacked by an army, military group or terrorists.

Wikipedia
Soft target

A "soft target" is "a person or thing that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable, especially to military or terrorist attack."

The terms "soft target" and "hard target" are flexible in nature and the distinction between the two is not always clear. However, typical "soft targets" are civilian sites where people congregate in large numbers; examples include national monuments, hospitals, schools, sporting arenas, hotels, cultural centers, movie theaters, cafés and restaurants, places of worship, nightclubs, shopping centers, and transportation sites (such as railway stations, buses, rail systems, and ferries). Soft targets are contrasted with hard targets, which typically restrict access to the public and have "sufficient security countermeasures in place to provide a high degree of protection against an attack." Examples of hard targets include airports, government buildings, military installations, foreign embassies, and nuclear power plants.

Terrorist groups "overwhelmingly" choose to strike soft targets. Of terrorist attacks worldwide from 1968 to 2005, 72% (8,111) struck soft targets and 27% (4,248) struck hard targets. The intent of attacks on soft targets is not only "to kill or injure" but also "to generate terror, create chaos, and intimidate" the public. Clark Kent Ervin notes that attacks on soft targets inflict psychological damage. Ervin also notes: "The harder we harden hard targets, the more likely an attack on a soft target becomes." In 2011, while preparations were being made for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the deputy commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Service noted that "If you secure the venues so the opposition [terrorist] can't get in, they will look for a soft target like parallel events linked to the Olympics but with less security."

Soft Target (book)

Soft Target: How the Indian Intelligence Service Penetrated Canada is a conspiracy theory book written by Zuhair Kashmeri & Brian McAndrew which claims the bombing of Air India Flight 182 was the work of Indian intelligence agencies.

The conspiracy theory was addressed by the official "Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182" which concluded that, " Talwinder Singh Parmar was the leader of the Babbar Khalsa, a pro-Khalistan organization at the heart of radical extremism, and it is now believed that he was the leader of the conspiracy to bomb Air India flights." and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police "again indicated that it possessed no evidence to support the theory that the Government of India was involved in the Air India bombing."

Usage examples of "soft target".

Han just could not understand that to play Fey'lya's game would be to countenance the Bothan's way of doing things, to become a part of the rot that had made the New Republic such a soft target for the Yuuzhan Vong in the first place.

With no cutting edge the thing wasn't much as a knife, but it would be deadly as a stabbing weapon if aimed at a soft target.

There are thousands of American bankers in Europe at any given moment, Jewish or otherwise, and I was certain that this guy was just a soft target for a third-rate gunman who bore a resemblance to Asad Khalil.

There they disembarked for tactical flexibility and to avoid giving the Enemy a single soft target of considerable value.

It never hurt to have one obvious bodyguard close aboard, and since the First Lady appeared to many as a soft target, one of Roy's functions was to make the casual troublemaker think twice on that basis alone.

You know he sent us in against a 'soft target,' a bunch of crackpot League separatists with 'improvised weaponry' and no tactical training.

Of course, the downside was that StateSec HQ was scarcely what someone might call a soft target.

Her foot found its soft target, but the one behind leaned backwards out of range - and fired his silenced handgun from no more than four feet away.