Anniversary

on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy at waco, i watched the award winning documentary "the rules of engagement". the storming of the branch davidian compound by fbi/atf agents looks very different on video than they described it in senate hearings. i can remember how angry it made me at the time, watching those buildings burn. it was one of the first times that i felt distrustful of the government, believed that they would actually do physical harm. which leads to the other event i remember each april 19, the bombing of the murrah building in oklahoma city in 1995.

andrew cohen wrote this morning about the bombing, sept. 11, and timothy mcveigh:

Anyway, McVeigh now is gone-- executed by the feds three months to the day before the September 11, 2001 attacks. I have often wondered whether he would have cheered Al Qaeda's audacity and brazeness from his jail cell or whether he would have deplored it. And I have wondered recently whether McVeigh-- had he not gone sour-- would have returned to the Gulf to fight a second battle against Iraq like so many of his fellow Gulf War I vets. McVeigh, remember, was a brilliant soldier during the 1991 conflict; a decorated gunner on a Bradley fighting vehicle. Had he kept it together-- had he not allowed the bitterness over the Branch Davidian conflagaration to consume him-- would we be seeing features about McVeigh on the news as he fought his way into Baghdad?

Saturday 19-Apr-03