For those of you who read the story of Victor Bout's recent court case where Thailand extradited him to the USA to face trial, you might remember the Movie Lord of War (skewered pretty good here).
The hypocrisy of the USA is astounding here. We are the largest "merchant of death" in the world, eclipsing other countries by exponential factors, see the chart on this page. Evidently, the audacious and unforgivable action of Mr. Bout was recognizing a profit opportunity, utilizing his connections, and taking market share away from the USA....., the "moral" supplier of these weapons!
There are two things interesting to me here. One, Bout is clearly portrayed (accurately it seems) as helping to loot the vast storehouses of weapons which were cached in the old Soviet Union, selling them abroad. It would seem that the Russians, Ukranians, Georgians etc, would be the ones wanting him. Instead, they are his defenders......, which tells you that there is more here than simply a rogue capitalist.
Two, Bout is portrayed as an inveterate philanderer, which prompts his wife to turn him in. The movie portrays her as the one who finally hands him over to the authorities. I don't know about his horn dogging (many rich and powerful men seem to share that characteristic), but the article below reveals his wife as weeping over his indictments, refuting them, and claiming they are "all political."
This just reaffirms my contention that when you go higher up, things get murky and all kinds of political links appear. Secondly it is just one more illustration that the entertainment industry should stick to things it knows about -- special effects and steamy sex and vapid gossip -- and spare us the morality sermons. That crowd, which would not know a moral absolute if it bit them on the butt, is nevertheless determined to prate unctuously about villainy and heroes. What they do instead is reveal their own moral bankruptcy and obtuseness in the process.
Arms Suspect Viktor Bout Vows to Win Case After Extradition to U.S. - NYTimes.com
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