War and Terror Inc.

In a global system that's still designed to regulate the Cold War, pre-Internet, pre-9/11 age, Bout is the prototype of the 21st-century entrepreneur. He sheds company names, moves aircraft registrations offshore and shuffles his businesses to new locations, with new bank accounts, at the drop of a hat. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies find his faint footprints long after he has moved on -- if they even bother to look for his footprints, that is, which they often don't.

That's because, for all his well-documented and unsavory activities, Bout and his cohorts also provide services to the United Nations, as well as governments and militaries around the world. When there was a need to airlift aid to tsunami victims in 2004, Bout's planes were there, flying relief to Indonesia. Need to move U.N. peacekeepers around Africa? Bout can do it -- and did, in Rwanda, Congo and elsewhere. Need to move enough weapons, tents, ammunition and food for an invading army in Iraq? Bout's ever-changing mosaic of airlines is willing to run the risks and land in conditions that are impossible for newer, U.S.-made aircraft. In Iraq, his aircraft flew hundreds of flights, delivering ammunition, generators, spare parts and mail.

But the cost is enormous. Over the past year, Bout's aircraft have been discovered delivering weapons to the now-ousted radical Islamic regime in Somalia, the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, pro-Russian factions in Georgia and to many other worrisome players in strategically important hot spots. Bout is brazen about aiding and abetting our enemies while collecting our money.

The Marine Corps has a saying: "If you want it bad, you get it bad." With Bout and his ilk, we are getting the worst by allowing him to prosper under the illusion that he is a necessary evil. Ask the amputees in Sierra Leone, the child soldiers in Congo and the abused women of Taliban-era Afghanistan what the true cost is.

doug@douglasfarah.com

Douglas Farah, a research fellow

with the Nine/Eleven Finding Answers Foundation, is the coauthor of

"Merchant of Death."