Quote Originally Posted by gRomoZeka View Post
+10
It's more than a dangerous precedent - arresting foreign citizens on foreign ground and prosecuting them under American law is becoming routine. Pretty much the same happened to Kim Schmitz (the founder of Megaupload and its associated websites). The only reason US is able to do it is because they bullied most of the world into obeying, I wish there were a way to oppose it.
I agree with you gRomozeka. My opinion here is not because of what's right or wrong, but rather because of what country should be responsible for it. I understand the way it went down, "sting op" and all that. In my opinion that's all the more reason why Russia, as one of the world's biggest powers and sometimes in some ways the biggest (space flight comes to mind, just saying), should have been consulted before anything was decided upon properly.

I also get the feeling that this is not so much just America's doing, as "advised" by those forces in the UN who are chiding Russia for not being "part of the club." I think some people will disagree on this last part because it's a pretty out-there connection to make, but it helps me understand the motivations better - unless, and I doubt it, America's security entities were actually *afraid* of Bout's ability to provide weaponry (I doubt it because he's just one more marketeer in a packed bazaar), it seems to me to be the only motivation capable of galvanizing major action (any action against Russia by US is a major one, given our history) like this one.

I'm sure a lot of people are more morally-compuncted by this news than I am; I just think it's like this: The amount of people that died from Bout's weapons would PALE in comparison to the amount that would die if US and Russia conflicted, even in a small way. So it's the better of two evils to channel Paunchus in this case - "Looking the other way a little bit can save the world," as they say.

luck/life