The ATF were purportedly there to serve an arrest warrant on Davidian leader, David Koresh, for federal firearms violations. As a local sheriff stated at the time, if the ATF had wanted to do that, they could have picked up Koresh while he was jogging. Instead, the ATF attacked the Branch Davidians with almost 100 agents who transported to the Davidians' home in huge horse trailers pulled by pickup trucks. In the ensuing firefight, six Davidians and and four ATF agents were killed. That is the part of the story that happened 20 years ago today. Fifty-one days later, the FBI and U.S. military troops conducted an assault on the 80-or-so Branch Davidians who were still holed up in their facility. After pumping the building full of highly flammable CS gas, the assault set off a fire that destroyed the Branch Davidian facility and almost everyone in it, including dozens of young children.
It was one of the most shameful episodes of government tyranny in United States history, and no one in the federal or Texas state government paid any kind of penalty for it. Looking back, the Waco Raid and the ensuing siege and deadly assault can be looked at as a test case for the federal government finding out more precisely what they were able to get away with. They certainly found that it is imperative that if you successfully demonize your opposition, there is no limit to what the dumb masses out there will tolerate.
I will always remember that the siege was still underway when a quickie TV movie was aired in which the federal agents were lionized and whenever the actor playing Koresh was on the screen, ominous music played in the background. Again, this TV movie aired BEFORE the April 19th assault and fire took place. The government and their lapdog media realized how imperative it was that the narrative be set as quickly as possible; and keep in mind, this was before the buzzword "narrative" was really used like it is today.
Were the beliefs of the Branch Davidians weird? I think so. Did their beliefs justify what was done to them? Not even close. What was especially poignant was that one of the primary justifications that Attorney General Janet Reno gave for what ensued was that there were reports of child molestation within the Branch Davidian community. So Reno's way of saving these children was to incinerate them?
The summer of 1992 had seen the Ruby Ridge/Randy Weaver fiasco in which FBI agents and U.S. Marshals under the George H.W. Bush administration carried out an assault on one American family in Idaho. You remember that one right? Where federal agents shot Randy Weaver's teenage son in the back and then later shot his wife in the head while she held their infant child? That was one of the first indicators to the American people that some sort of shift was beginning to take place. But the Weaver Affair was small potatoes compared to the Waco massacre of the following year.
As bad as Waco was, we now have an occupier in the White House who makes Bill Clinton seem moderate and reasonable by comparison. I shudder to think what Barack Obama is capable of doing if given the right circumstances. He has already shown himself to be willing to take out children by the bushel with overseas drone strikes. The current fear is that those drones are soon to be unleashed upon We the People.
If you ever want to watch an informative, riveting, maddening, and heartbreaking account of what took place at Waco during February-April 1993, watch the Academy Award-nominated documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement. You can watch it in its entirety on YouTube. The Congressional hearing footage showing those rats like Chuckie Schumer, John Conyers, and other statist snakes will make your blood boil. For a comprehensive book on the subject, I suggest The Ashes of Waco by Dick Reavis.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson
1 comment:
Mr. Chandler,
This article is arguably your your best ever! Thank you for the resources cited. This one needs to be shared as much as possible; I hope you don't mind!
JW
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