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Can you or someone tell me why,besides the obvious government overreaction to the Dravidians,do conservatives take up for Koresh?
His "compound"was run on Marxist socialist principles-something out of a Sixties hippie commune while using Christianity to justify the socialist leanings of Koresh and his followers.
Also,does anyone have a problem with Koresh and his involvement with several underage girls?I certainly do.
I am NOT defending Clark,the Clintons or anyone else implicated in this American tragedy.I just want to know why it has become such a conservative cause celebre!
Thanks,Riverman

Can you or someone tell me why,besides the obvious government overreaction to the Dravidians,do conservatives take up for Koresh?

I believe it's called the US Constitition, which, if memory serves me, is supposed, at least by conservatives, to apply to everyone. I'd like to suggest someone else to you that lived in a commune, of sorts, espoused the sharing of wealth with the poor, and fell into disrepute in his community for doing so--Jesus Christ.

Yours is the most interesting-perhaps most intriguing, thoughtful, and useful observation on THIS thread. Our very culture is in question & the political authority along with it.

I do not agree that what happened was a tradgedy-it was a series of criminal actions on the part of various government authorities and police agencies.

I am a poor source for real answers-I have only thoughts & observations, colored by emotion, about an event I watched live on my television, less than 70 miles from my home. My thoughts are convoluted & entwined with my disgust of government power run wild-with no reduction in sight.

Our inherent & oft cited sense of 'fairness', Christian tolerance, our cultural propensity to shield the weak & defenseless, COMBINED to cause us to recoil from the government's heavy hand ( with virtually no provocation ) to allow or compel us to ignore Koresh. He is the smaller matter.

I think very few have ever taken up the cause of Koresh-quite the contrary-most ignore the matter of his crimes, peculiar circumstances, the manner of the living arrangements & rules of operation of this very strange & dubious commune. The maddness of the government became the larger matter.

The more practical answer ( or solution which might have been proper ) is that two Texas Rangers ( or even ONE, if the McClennan County Sheriff declined to act alone or desired the assistance & reassurance of outside oversight for some unknown reason ) could have most certainly 'handled' Mr. Koresh, once he was charged with a crime-and his apparent transgressions had nothing to do with the US Federal Government. Please recall that CRIME is a State matter. Further, it is a COUNTY officer who holds & delivers a criminal to the County or State court for trial-the Sheriff is the highest police authority in the County. The County has jurisdiction over criminal matters involving local crimes against persons, excluding some extenuating circumstances. I hold that the Governor should have ordered the State police to intervene, en mass, peacefully if at all possible-supporting the County Sheriff's authority over the matter. We have perhaps two-hundred Texas Rangers & God only knows how many hundreds of Texas Department of Public Safety 'State Trooper's-all very well armed. I contend that the fed's might have just gotten their Nazi tails back to the DEACTIVATED Air Force base & flown away. But that Governor was Ma Richards. Instead, armor from the stock of the Texas National Guard were placed on scene & I wonder if the Governor had to approve this obscene action. From the article at Drudge, by Pete Yost, "We can't grade your paper," one of the two Special Forces officers was quoted as telling the Justice Department and the FBI. The comment referred to the legal restrictions prohibiting direct participation in civilian law enforcement operations. ( end quote )

None of the above is ever seriously discussed & the actions of the fed's are just accepted by the ignorant-sold like soap & automobiles on the idiot box. The entire affair is presented as a mere contest between bad crazies & good federal officers, who only wanted to protect us! Since the expansions of federal powers in the 1930's began, they have marched forward through WWII, Korea, the Cold War, holding forth the simpleton's formula-we are only doing this to protect the larger community, make you all safe & you may trust us!

"There were more tanks at Waco than there were at Mogadishu", #14, Paleo Conservative

The actual use of US military armor against civilians, the overwhelming oppression of the federal police power ( in full bloom at Waco ), our State & local authorities standing back watching & doing NOTHING to stop the madness-all guaranteed our most certain reaction. Another issue entirely, may be what the public has never learned-if there were other agencies involved, other prior actions by the residents at Mt. Carmel, or some ulterior motives from either side-odd constructions of pure invention abound & some may have some basis. We will never know with certainity.

Too bad the reaction was only protests after the fact. One more chapter in the needless degradation of our culture and the decay of civil government. More very bad things will surely result as consequence to these events.