The Oklahoma City Bomber
I hoped that this topic was dead and buried but the imminent execution of
Timothy McVeigh, and Gore Vidal's support for McVeigh's ideas, has left me little choice but to comment. Both these gentlemen seem to think the US goverment erred in their actions against the Branch
Davidians in Waco, Texas. They seem to forget that it was David Koresh who
chose to arm his religious group and 'invite' the ATF to drop by with a
search warrant. It was the Branch Davidians who opened fire on the ATF when
they tried to serve the search warrant. The standoff lasted approximately 2
months. During these two months the FBI were not lounging around the
property sunning themselves and wearing headphones listening to their
favorite CDs but on 24 hour a day 7 days a week high alert because they
never knew when or how the Branch Davidians would go into action.
To
maintain a high alert posture for 3 or 4 days would be taxing, but here we
had a situation where a high alert had to be maintained for weeks on end,
with no end in sight. The FBI had no other option, with negotiations going
no where, but to act while the FBI agents were still in a state of mind
where they could act rationally. My personal view is that if anyone,
complaining about the FBI's actions, had themselves been placed in the
position of being on high alert day after day, they would have been lobbying
for action to be taken before they 'lost their minds'.
It's always
easy to play Monday-morning-quarterback when not faced firsthand with the
situation themselves. It always easier sitting back, and with no
responsibility for what happens, to make snap judgements after the fact on
how things should have been handled.
5/9/01
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