........Which also makes it Eight years since the Oklahoma City Bombing, which was motivated by the disaster at Waco.
I saw a documentary about Waco a few years back, and I do have to say this: as wacky as the beliefs were of the Branch Davidians, I saw some disturbing similarities in their eschatology with JW beliefs. And, why not? They both come from the same roots of Adventism. A charismatic leader, a group of people desperately looking for a better world, a bunch of Bible prophecy gobbledegook: sounds very familiar indeed.
The surviving members of the siege, when interviewed, sounded very credible in their testimony of what was happening inside the compound, and how they were being dealt with by the Feds. They spoke of broken promises and deliberate antagonism. Relatives of the members talked about how eager the FBI tactical teams seemed to be to storm the place. (They didn't get all dressed up and come out all that way for nothing!) Meanwhile, all the gov't officials, in interviews and in congressional testimony, looked like deer trapped in headlights. ("Fum fum, uh, splutter, We followed all proper procedure, ahem, we had reports of abuse, er, guns and ammo, these guys were dangerous!")
These days, I believe absolutely nothing coming from the FBI press office about this incident, or any other. The FBI has this great rep, but it's all been self generated. I think it's an inept bureaucracy, albeit a gun carrying one, which makes it all the more scary.
And lets also not forget that the ATF played their part as well. They went in like a bunch of Elliot Ness Untouchables, and stirred up this hornet's nest to begin with, and then dumped it in the FBI's lap.
If this had been handled differently, if the agencies involved hadn't been playing to the media to justify their existence, this wouldn't have happened. And, not only would the children in that siege be ten years older today, but the children at the Murrah Building, along with the other 160+ victims two years later, might still be alive today as well.