Bout Busted in Bangkok

The "Merchant of Death", regarded as the world's biggest illegal arms dealer was arrested by Thailand's police in Bangkok. Victor Bout, 41, a Russian who graduated from Moscow's Military Institute and known to be a Major in the KGB, is wanted for engaging in illegal arms trade in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America, Europe, and selling arms and weaponry to the Taleban and Al Qaeda. He is also the most prominent foreign business man known to be breaking UN embargoes on arms sales to Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine and Krygyzstan. Bout was arrested on the strength of a US warrant issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Victor Bout, who has the reputation as the "man who makes war possible", is believed to be the inspiration for Nicolas Cage's character in the 2005 film "Lord of War". In 2002, he evaded arrest stemming from a warrant issued by Belgium and interpol when he returned to Russia. The Russian Constitution protected him from extradition. He has also been investigated in several countries but has never been prosecuted for arms dealing. As implied in the movie, the illegal arms dealer is set free by the higher authorities of the very country that arrested him, primarily because these countries use him to sell arms to the enemies of their enemy in a war for wealth and profitable resources.

Bout speaks several languages and owns the largest private fleet of Soviet era cargo aircraft, obtained during the break-up of the Soviet Union. It is chillingly possible that he has also obtained and sold some of the former USSR's nuclear weapons and ICBMs to countries that are at odds with the western powers. Bout has denied performing illegal acts. How this arrest and seizure of his cargo in Thailand will play out deserves scrutiny. Trade offs and back room deals to prevent information leaks about involvement of other countries and their officials in sanctioning arms selling, could conceal the brutal truth about these transactions and the bloody trail of death, destruction and misery it leaves behind. Bout could certainly be out of the picture, but someone from the same mold will take his place.

Men like Victor Bout see only the profit in war. They are cognizant of the lust for power among leaders, that fuel the greed and plunder of nations; unmindful of the suffering, pain, dislocation, and psychological damage to the survivors and the generation of bitter orphans it produces. These are mere collateral damage for their objective of wealth and power acquisition. The trader in Victor Bout is focused on the transaction as a business agreement; and death, in all its savagery, brutality, and inhumanity is just an economic method where the tools of his trade are applied. That such men are protected by heads of powerful agencies of states is not surprising. The pursuit of power and the desire to dominate produces the worst of scoundrels even within nations that declare their adherence to democratic principles.

Haaaarrrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!

Curtain Call for Castro

Fidel Castro, the battle scarred aging warrior of the Western Hemisphere, whose legendary confrontations with the world's most powerful empires against his own third world island nation, is finally laying down his armor. After 49 years at the helm in Cuba, as one of the longest reigning leaders of the 20th century, surviving more than 600 assassination attempts and outlasting 9 US Presidents; Fidel Castro is walking towards the sunset until his last breath - in his own time and on his own terms.

Here is a revolutionary who challenged the exploitative US capitalist structure in
his country, seized their assets, shut down the operations of the organized criminals of America, instituted genuine land reform, provided quality education and health care to his people continuously, and neutralized the western propaganda machinery of protests and negative publicity; despite the forceful imposition of a 40 year economic embargo supported by nearly all countries of the globe - that practically starved the country and threatened to make Cuba an unlamented and forgotten graveyard. America was so incensed with Castro that it wanted him to bend, kneel and grovel for peace. Fidel Castro and the Cubans were steadfast and took their best shots head on, and remained proudly on their feet knowing that theirs was a moral victory.

Castro was a dictator with an iron hand, who embraced communism and stuck to a socialist economic model, up to the point where the world experienced its demise as an unworkable system. Faced with an economic embargo and the subsequent removal of Soviet support in the late 1980s, he resorted to stringent measures in dealing with protests from within, that crossed the line where civilized and humane treatment were replaced by oppression and abuse. Castro long suspected the US of fanning unrest through its agents in Cuba, noting the 261,000 people leaving between 1965-1973. To spite the US, he allowed 125,000 Cubans to leave for the US in 1980, including criminals from Cuban jails which brought a violent crime wave to Florida.

But these are political anomalies that the US can turn a blind eye to when it's convenient for their interests. Both China and Russia were communist dictatorships that were as oppressive, if not more iron fisted than Cuba; and yet trade between them flourished. What really riled the US was Castro's use of America's tactics on America itself. The US-backed NATO had planted missiles in Europe that could strike at the heart of Russia in a short time; Castro gave Russia the same opportunity, conditioned on buying its exports at a premium. The US sent its CIA agents to other countries to destabilize governments and install dictators; Castro exported his brand of revolution in South America; and headed the Non-Aligned Movement (against Soviet objections) that sent Cuban soldiers to train and beef-up the Angolan army.

Like life itself, Castro is a man of contradictions. He has won major battles, and he has also lost many, including the painful sight of his countrymen leaving for the land of his enemy. Since he deposed the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Cuba has been in a crisis mode, and the country had to survive amidst hostile surroundings under increasing difficulties. In a crisis situation, the use of absolute authority trumps consensus or majority decision in order to maintain control of scant resources; and ensure portions for all. Castro fought under a democratic promise that he was unable to keep. Rather, events and his decisions because of it, kept his people in the dark about democracy; despite the achievements in social services and agriculture.

After 49 years, Fidel Castro may be viewed as a survivor, like the country he ruled. In hindsight, he was neither truly anti-American nor pro-Soviet Union, but simply pro-Cuba. He has remained a soldier in dress and in attitude, and will remain a soldier till his last breath. He said he needed to prepare the country for his absence, and he would not take new responsibilities that require physical mobility he can no longer provide. As a lifelong soldier, he said, "I wish only to fight as a soldier of ideas".

At this late stage in his life, these ideas run the risk of being dismissed by the west as the ramblings of aging mad man.

Haaarrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!