International Herald Tribune Staff editorial on Viktor Bout.

“The fall of the lord of war”:

When DEA agents and Thai police nabbed Bout, at the conclusion of a four-month sting operation to lure him from the safety of his luxury apartment in Moscow, the only thing he would say to his captors was, “Game is over.”

This was a perfect bit of pulp novel dialogue. But it should also be a wake-up call to governments and international organizations that have long known how easily Bout flouted UN sanctions and avoided punishment for feeding the fires of war in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Arms trafficking is a $10 billion global business.