Late Night TV: Waco: The Rules Of Engagement

Video excerpt (Part 11 of 13) of the movie. "Waco: The Rules Of Engagement" full movie here.


Last night, I got into black helicopter mode, and watched this movie on teevee.

It's a bad mix when ATF agents try to enforce gun laws on a Christian apocalyptic sect that might already be philosophically-inclined towards Masada-like last stands.

Nevertheless, it's clear in retrospect that the proper course of action should have been to defuse any confrontation. No one's interests were served.

It's also clear that the FBI/ATF was the aggressor here, and shoulders most of the blame for what happened. On the final day of the standoff, federal actions were unconscionable. Ripping into a building on a windy day and spraying an aerosol mix of CS throughout the building guaranteed a fire. Why were federal agents firing automatic weapons into the building anyway? (And as the video above makes that crystal clear, despite federal protestations, that gunfire did occur.) If you want desperate people to leave a burning building you don't fire into it.

It would be nice to get a less-slanted view of what the FBI/ATF folks were thinking. Once they had suffered loss of life they seemed bent on vengeance but the documentary was being told from the Branch Davidian point of view, so any subtleties there got lost.

It was weird to be mostly in agreement with the GOP folks on the investigating Congressional committee during testimony (but then it's the filmmaker's privilege to choose the best testimony).

Still, Waco is just another reason why I believe gun control laws should be strengthened nationwide (but on the state and local, not federal level, except regarding the Mexican border). The language of rights aside, it displays poor judgement for Christian apocalyptic sects to possess large caches of firearms. Because Masada is always just around the corner, and the large cache makes it even more terrible than it should be. On the other hand, enforcing gun control laws does not justify incinerating children.