If two or three other groups like the Davidians had gotten torched in the weeks prior to the attack on the Davidians, the ATF crew would have had to either show up with tanks, a profoundly bad PR move, or they would have had their heads handed to them on platters as soon as they pulled off the highway.
I hate to sound like a tin foil hat guy, bit the Davidians KNEW the ATF was coming before they got there and why they were coming.
The real question is how did they know? Who told them?