The Lord of War comes to the U.S.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Mandolin1

As far as i see it, we have no authority to arrest or try him.

Sure we do. He was extradited to this country from Thailand with the approval of their justice system. Since we have an extradition treaty with Thailand, and since they arrested/detained him (after a DEA operation), they had the final say. And they chose to allow extradition. People are not immune from prosecution for criminal acts just because they happen to be citizens of different countries than those where they were arrested.

Originally Posted by Mandolin1

His crimes were committed outside the US and who cares if he wants to sell bad guys stuff to shoot down Black Hawks.

Who cares? Are you an American? Personally, I care if someone is selling weapons to enemies of America. So does almost everyone I know who is in the service. I'm sure they'd take offense to your comment.

Originally Posted by Mandolin1

Arms dealers may be bad, but there is no real international authority to stop them and they do business in countries that have no real government or just bribe their way through. He told bad guys the stuff he had was good for killing Americans? He's probably told that to all his customers, just replace America with the name of the buyer's enemy.

Then let this be the precedent. If you are really indifferent to the idea of men like Viktor Bout profiting from civil wars, then you must be an extremely cynical person. I don't see how you can't feel some degree of disgust and outrage at such evil actions. Anyone who would sell weapons to men like Mullah Omar or Charles Taylor - repeatedly - needs to be locked up.