Merchant of Death
by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun
Wiley

Those who reach beyond the CNN/FOX News view of world events — a neverending series of celebrity DUIs, pre-spun administration gaffes and kittens rescued from storm drains — soon become aware of a series of quiet wars.

For those caught in the crossfire of AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and attack helicopters, these "low-intensity" conflicts are anything but. However, despite the human cost, there seems to be an understanding in the news business that 5,000 dead in Africa are worth 50 dead in Europe are worth 5 dead in the United States are worth one misdemeanor in Hollywood, California.

For the few who take notice of the child soldiers and raped women of the developing world, the steady drumbeat of tragic news reports can feel overwhelming. Two thousand massacred in Sudan; fifty blown up in Afghanistan; hundreds raped in West Africa. Where's the common thread to these stories? And, by extension, what's the tangible problem that could be solved?

Money may be among the strongest sinews of war, but it's impossible to stop oil, diamonds and other precious natural resources from being converted to ready cash. It is possible, however, to stop that cash from being turned into weapons; weapons that fuel these raging little brush fires and make so much of the world a living hell for the poor and the powerless.

Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible pulls back the curtain to reveal the gears of war and the human beings they grind into powder. The book is a fast-paced and expertly researched biography of star-caliber arms dealer Victor Bout, whose bloody thumbprint can be found on conflicts ranging from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Colombia to Afghanistan (both sides) and Iraq. Its authors, Douglas Farah (formerly of the Washington Post's West Africa bureau) and Stephen Braun of The Los Angeles Times, are perfectly positioned to unravel not only Bout's globetrotting misadventures, but the Western malfeasance that has helped protect and even expand his empire of blood.

Bout emerges quickly as the most terrifying form of evil imaginable: well-organized, quiet, efficient, smart, adaptive and completely without conscience. Always two to three steps ahead of his pursuers, Bout consistently has a new trick up his sleeve to keep his network of rusty old Russian transport planes flying from their hangars with new shipments of arms. His talent for re-invention and survival inspired the character played by Nicolas Cage in Lord of War, and his "business first" attitude exemplifies the deadly potential of capitalism without restraints.

Merchant of Death spends many words describing Bout and his network, but its jaw-dropping power hinges, unsurprisingly, on 9/11. As an arms merchant with global reach, a well-honed skill at evading international law, and a willingness to put guns in the hands of Taliban thugs or child soldiers, Bout is the very model of the new trans-global threat. He's precisely the sort of guy who would put nuclear components in the wrong hands, for the right price.

Therefore, it's intriguing to learn that the Bush administration, through the military and defense contractors such as Kellogg, Brown and Root paid the Bout network as much as $60 million to run supplies to US forces in Iraq.

To restate this: having discovered an infernally efficient criminal network dedicated to delivering deadly weapons on a moment's notice to the highest bidder, the US Defense Department enlisted said network to fuel the Iraq war. Whether this is rank incompetence, shortsighted amorality or some mixture of both is not totally clear, but it's fascinating and depraved no matter how you slice it.

There doesn't seem to be any easy answer to Bout, who still hangs out in Moscow sushi restaurants with impunity, blaming international charges against him on an anti-Russian conspiracy. And while Merchant of Death doesn't necessarily have the magic bullet to take Bout and his ilk out of their dangerous game, it certainly spells out a threat that America's next president — whomever that may be — could tackle if he or she were truly concerned about making the world a safer place.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)