[ASTM366]

I respect your defense of the law enforcement personnel involved at Mt. Carmel, but get the impression that you do not respect the "rights" of the Branch Davidians to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, due process and limits on central authorities.

[quidnunc]

The search warrant was due process and the Davidians had no right to resist it by force.

Now let's say that the Davidians did fire in self defense during the initial entry: I don't believe it for an instant but lets's say it for the sake of argument.

Their continued resistance after the agents withdrew still put the Davidians on the wrong side of the law.

No, the Davidians were the authors of their own demise and there's no other conclusion that reasonable people can reach.

I believe there were grave mistakes made by the Justice Dept. and some top brass, but these mistakes did not give the Davidians the right to resist by force.

The only place that they could legally have battled was in the federal courts.

The Davidians, not the federal agents on the scene, were the bad guys.