🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael T Shinn wrote:
> 
> John M Atkinson (jatkinso@ANTISPAMgmu.edu) wrote:
> : %Thats awfully myopic of you.  Regardless of my or your particulat fellings
> : %out these individuals personal religous or governmental opinions is no
> : %cause for hunting them down, demonizing them, surrounding them with tanks,
> : %and shooting and burning their children alive.
> 
> : The fire started inside the compound.  And there were no 'tanks' present.  I
> : shouldn't have to explain the definition of tank to an infantry type.
> 
> Thats not my point.  My point is that by creating a seige that feed right
> into their paranoid mythology gave their leader exactly what he needed to
> convince his followers to die.

Absolutely. But you must realize that one of the worst things one can
do, is to give a person in a paranoid mindset evidence that they're _not
paranoid enough_. The BATF and their compadres gave all of the people
inside absolute assurance that everything they had feared was coming to
pass.

> 
> I still contend, that the FBI is equally to blame for not considering the
> implications of such a short sighted attack plan, and ATTACK plan it was.
> TheseAmerican Citizens were treated like enemies of the state - I for one
> was very disturbed by the use of Military Equipment against American
> Citizens that posed NO immediate and Clear Danger to their neighbors.
> 
> What was the god damn rush?  Its not like they had Hostages or something.

I occasionally pray that it wasn't as an abreaction to something that I
had circulating on some BBSes (including one in that region of Texas),
as it turned out my predictions of a fictional California Cannibal Cult
( http://www.clark.net/pub/klaatu/interlude.html ) have since been
all-too well borne-out by such things as the Aum Shinrikyo sarin
attacks, etc - who knows, these guys may have thought this was actual
intel. Or it may simply have been a case of professional paranoids
coming up against unprofessional paranoids, and going in loaded for bear
when it was not bear they were up against.

> 
> Anyway, I feel for both the Agents that died or were wounded and their
> families AND the families of all those cult victims.  We have to temper
> our resolve to fight crime with a better respect for the powerful
> psychological forces that exist in such fringe movements.

Absolutely.

>  You'd think
> that Jonestown might have taught us something, hopefully the Texas
> Seperatists demonstrate a positive change in law enforcement.

We can only pray. Law-enforcement must realize, and evidently does, that
some people are in certain frames of mind to be willing to attempt to
withdraw from the union, go to ultra-violent modes, etc, and the proper
attack would be one of psychological operations, not of overwhelming
overresponse. I can think of very few situations where a simple
seige-and-wait approach wouldn't turn out to be the best solution.
Stomping the crap out of people for having a different political or
worldview outlook is not particularly civilized. Convincing them to get
a fair and equitable hearing instead of getting themselves killed is a
civilized approach.

JMHO.

> 
> M. Shinn

-- 
Be kind to your       | When the going gets weird the weird turn pro.
neighbors even though | http://www.clark.net/pub/klaatu/
they be transgenic    | Now. chock full of uninteresting links.
chimerae.             |-- Genesis 19:1-13 - Hebrews 13:2 -- 
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Usually I work within the system when it's not trying to get me killed.