April 19th, 1993...
"People like the militia have a whole bunch of crazy ideas... However, they have two pieces of truth in all the craziness. One is 'Look at what happened at Waco. And the government hid its mistakes and concealed its misdeeds.' And the other piece of truth is that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms made this attack on Waco because Koresh's followers had guns. And the militias have guns. So the militias have these two kernels of truth in all their craziness about our government: Waco, and the fear that the government will come after them because they have guns." -Dr. Alan Stone
That's a bit cynical, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. April 1st was three weeks ago?
OK, strike that first sentence.
If you think about it, isn't that why King George III sent troops to Lexington and Concord? My, my how little things have changed!
ReplyDeleteAnd let's not forget what that raid precipitated a few years later. I hope they thought it was worth it. Now F Troop has a brand new fuckup to celebrate that got a Border Patrol agent killed. Some things never change.
ReplyDeleteThat bridge, tired and forlorn, yet gallantly spans twin laments...
ReplyDeletetwo minutes and 118 years apart.
Yet nothing is learned.
AT
19 April, 1993: The Day that Tyrants EXPECTED Citizens to Become Subjects. Didn't work in Waco, just like it didn't work at Lexington and Concord.
ReplyDeleteThem looks like tanks in that there picture.
ReplyDeleteBeing used against American citizens.
The idea that they were "on loan", and therefore it wasn't the U.S. Military being used against U.S. Citizens . . . well, that seems to be a pretty thin distinction, if you ask me.
BoxStockRacer
"Mistakes" and "misdeeds".
ReplyDeleteNice little euphemisms for burning to death sixty-seven people, including women and children as the result of a military-style raid on American citizens based on exagerated and perhaps outright falsified evidence.
Yabbut, Janet Reno said Koresh was a child molester!
ReplyDeleteToo bad any evidence got incinerated along with any witnesses, perps, and victims.
The day after the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is Patriots day were we celebrate our uprising.
ReplyDeleteum, that would be 218 years of course...would that we could have that extra century back though. AT
ReplyDeleteSteve, even if Koresh WERE a child molester, wouldn't that be something the Sheriff and Child Protective Services should handle, instead of a Federal TAX agency??
ReplyDeleteNo, wait. It was the bump triggers for the AR-15s. Never mind.
Looks like Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Libya or... and this was to take down American citizens who MIGHT have been arrested with little fanfare as they got out of their vehicles at the local grocery store...
ReplyDeleteI'm not a militia member, was serving when this happened. The thing that most disturbs me about this is that a lot of people died because the leader of a government agency (and perhaps his supervisors) felt that publicity was more important than the safety of anyone directly involved. Waco wasn't a designated free fire zone. It is an American city.
Waco and Ruby Ridge: two groups of asshats that federal law enforcement has made me actually feel sympathy for.
ReplyDeleteI watched that go down live when I lived in Doraville. It was the most horrifying thing I had ever witnessed on TV till 9/11.
ReplyDeleteMatt, why don't you tell everyone what made the people at Waco and Ruby Ridge "asshats"?
Was it their religious beliefs?
Was it because they made money selling firearms?
Was it because they lived in remote locations and wanted nothing more than to be left alone?
Do tell...
Gmac
There's an old saying, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes". At Waco and Ruby Ridge, everybody played stupid.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand, as a default position I tend to side with the individual citizen in any citizen/government dispute, but initial sympathies can't outweigh the citizen in question's failure to advance his dispute through our country's established mechanisms for that. And, no, a government failure to fully comport itself bwithin the same mechanisms doesn't excuse the citizen's failure either, it just spreads the stupid wider and deeper. Witness the good Dr. Stone stumbling around mustache deep in the stuff.
Watch the CNN coverage at a Three Letter Agency. General consensus was "Hell, even Nixon never did this. Impeachment time."
ReplyDeleteAlas, their analysis of US politics was no better than that of the USSR.
Randy Weaver was signing books at a gunshow years ago in our area. Didn't have the balls to go buy a copy- not with the ATF watching, anyway.:(
ReplyDelete"..tanks..."
ReplyDeleteYup. Waco was our own Tienaman Square.
BTW, I flew my Gadsden Flag yesterday. Did you?
Crotalus: "Yesterday"? ;)
ReplyDeleteWe generally do not fear our government. We know that they will generally play by the rules. We are wise enough to see the potential abuses they could employ and aware that the government HAS had abuses in the past. And nothing like previous history can prepare us for the potential of the future. Armed Citizens can contest their government. Unarmed subjects resemble sheep at the slaughter house, no matter the volume of complaint, they have no say in their future. Stay vigilant.
ReplyDeleteYup, perlhaqr, I flew it on Patriot's Day, April 19th. Not the perverted federal government observance, but the day the "Shot heard 'round the World" was fired.
ReplyDeleteOr did you mean I should fly it every day?