Who is Viktor Bout, the prisoner the U.S. may trade for Brittney Griner? https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114...risoner-the-u-s-may-trade-for-brittany-griner How many US citizens have been involved in arms deals .. to other nations .. ending up in people killed .. and what is the DEA doing going around the world under the auspicies of "Drugs" acting as world police .. but only on behalf of US interests ..
The conspiracy to kill Americans sounds like a bit of a trumped-up charge. He is definitely a badass though. Sounds like a good deal for the US, because the Russians don't like him either and now they can foot the bill.
Clearly the Russian's do like him - but still a good deal for US .... he has done half his time in any case. Who is footing what bill ? Who is not a "bad-ass" in the world of spies and arms dealers and war-craft ? Got 500,000 dead syrian civilians.. moved all the stuff left over from the war in Yugoslavia .. gave it to Islamist Jihadists (Al Qaeda and Spawn) who went on to form a new Islamic State in Syria .. Who were those "Bad Asses" - yet to find a jail cell .. or even be charged ... Were we not going after not just the terrorists but the supporters of terrorism .. please help me out with this confused doublespeak "conspiracy to kill Americans" ?! as dubious and fkn stupid as it gets .. made up nonsense for lack of anything else to justify locking the guy up for life. Wish we knew what this fellow actually did to piss the US off so much ... must have got in the way of some clandestine CIA ops during his travels.
The problem with Bout was always that he was obviously a bad guy doing harm, but it was difficult to make the case that he actually violated US law.
Well, one less mouth to feed in an America jail cell. And southeast Asia and middle and Central America... The list goes on. Discussion for another day. (But I'm more focused on US behaviour now) Or he was competition, lol. Seriously though, who knows. Broadly speaking you could say it's not too much of US business, so there's a hidden story, obviously.
Sure but Russia will not be picking up the tab .. so kind of made no sense. Still going on .. behavoir has not changed ... US is one of biggest arms dealers in world - legitimate and illegitimate .. Pentagon Job 1 Definitely pissed someone off .. conflicted with one or more of our interests .. that Gov't not interested in telling us about
My bad. I thought this guy was in the Russian bad books as well I think the US is getting more discerning at picking its fights, friends and enemies. It's not the only Western power that sells weapons. Yep, I wouldn't mess with the CIA/Pentagon either! I try to see the good in the US at face value through. I've directly lived in East and West Berlin and seen the difference. America is by far the lesser evil.
Nothing to do with the lesser of two evils -- a backhand apology for atrocity .. "my life is good so good here so its OK that our Gov't slaughters women and children in other nations" - not a good argument for much mate. "Not the only Western Power that Sells Weapons" -- Exactly .. so why are we criminalizing others for what we do ? - and this is about more than generalized selling of weapons.
Right ... so we just make up nonsense .. violate the rule of Law .. international law .. and so on .. typical do as we say . not as we do silliness.
Yes, I was doing what you call coming to the side of your argument. Providing a little cognitive scaffolding for you. In the end you need to pick a side. Australia went to to war in Vietnam as well. I'm not going to hold it against our allies forever. I just know that currently out Allies are morally far less culpable than Russia, who appears to be on a military invasion spree. Some contexts are more appropriate for selling weapons than others. By and large I'm against it but not in this case.
Not about picking a side mate .. like picking a side in a blood feud .. both sides wrong. better example is violation of the rule of law or founding principle .. matters not whether Red or Blue side is doing it .. is still bad .. and you should be against both .. due to the nasty precedent set which will come back to bite you.
