TR, I'm not going to argue with you so this will be my first and last post on this.
I'm no expert on any of this but was interested because of all the conflicting reports and so read everything about it that I
could find. It seems to me that there were plenty of mistakes and miscalls on both sides, and blame enough to cover all
involved. We have to remember that it all began when ATF agents raided the compound based on information that
David Koresh had a stockpile of illegal weapons, which proved to be true. The raid went south, people on both sides
died, and the sh*tstorm started. No one was ever able to establish who fired the first shot but it did come from the
compound. The transcripts of the phone conversations between Agent in Charge Ricks and Koresh show a total lack
of flexibility on both sides.
The phone calls seem to me to show that both Rick and Koresh had agendas that were in total opposition and neither was
willing to make any reasonable compromises; the outcome we know. Reno's only real culpability has to do with the six-year
denial of the possible incendiary properties of the teargas grenades and it is quite possible that she herself had been
mislead by her subordinates; how many civilians with no military or on-the-ground SWAT-type experience know which
kinds of gas grenades may have incendiary possibilities? Heck, I have 22 years in uniform and unless the cases have
warnings I wouldn't know which was which! I'd presume that they were hot enough to ignite flammable materials but not
everyone thinks that way.
A bad situation all around, but I can't condemn Janet Reno for any of it. If we look at it in its entirety it seems David Koresh
is ultimately to blame for keeping an illegal stockpile of NFA firearms and explosives ... which strikes me as a bit odd for
the leader of supposedly peaceful Christian sect.
You don't argue DS, you discuss. I have tremendous respect for that.
I have tremendous love in this world for our children. They are a gift from God, each and everyone of them. That is why I am so passionately against abortion. They are our future, not pawns in a political discussion.
They is nothing in this world that would justify the burning to death of 17 children alive, certainly not illegal NFA weapons. David Koresh bears a level of responsibility in this, to that there is no doubt, but rational minds should have prevailed in this situation and it most certainly did not.
My opening remarks may appear to some as nothing more then a bitter old man holding onto a 23 year grudge, I do not know. What I do know is Reno was the torch bearer in all of this and the Good Lord will judge her accordingly.
The Chelsea remark was probably a little heavy handed, but my disdain for that whole group of thieve and aberrant monsters knows no bounds.
Some if the FBI agents shot other agents through walls. They could not see who they were shooting at....
