I will say this, however.  I was, frankly, surprised  would be a mild word, to say that anyone that would suggest that the Attorney General should resign because some religious fanatics murdered themselves.-Bill Clinton

April 19, 2008 marks the fifteen year anniversary of the debacle at Waco, TX which resulted in the deaths of 76 people including 27 children.  Now known simply as "Waco," the FBI assault on the Branch Davidian complex at Mt. Carmel, along with the federal government's subsequent reaction, stands as a solemn and ominous reminder of the grave consequences of a government out of control.


Mt. Carmel in flames

Volumes of research have been produced about what really happened at Waco.  A comprehensive study of this tragedy is well beyond the scope of this blog.  In fact, we will probably never know what really happened.  Instead of shedding light onto the actions of their agents, federal agencies have chosen to hide as much as possible, destroying, fabricating, and "losing" evidence while their agents perjured themselves on the witness stand.  The "official" investigation into the events at Waco headed by former Missouri senator John Danforth was a farce; Danforth's objective was to "restore the people's faith in their government" and  "to move past this incident."  Of course, if the government were to blame for what happened at Waco, Danforth's premise would have mutually exclusive from uncovering the truth since the results of the investigation would have shaken confidence in the government to its very core.

At Waco, over 80 people died including four federal agents who participated in the February 28 ATF raid.  Timothy McVeigh used Waco as an excuse to murder 168 innocent people when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on the second anniversary of Waco. 

As a result of Waco, the truth itself was a casualty.  As the truth about what really happened at Waco died during the Waco investigations, another truth revealed itself.  While America may have been founded upon the idea that the role of the government is to protect its citizens, the fact is that nowadays the role of the government is to protect the State, not the people.

While the remains of innocent women and children smoldered in ashes of an inferno that could only be described as Hell on Earth, the President of the United States praised the Attorney General on her decisiveness and a job well done.  

Bill Clinton and Janet Reno will claim that, as government officials, they protected society from people like David Koresh.  After what we witnessed at Waco, the real question is: who is going to protect us from people like Clinton and Reno?

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Cato Institute paper on Waco.

UPDATE:

Anthony Gregory points out that, since political power flows from the barrel of a gun, Waco was not a result of a government out of control.  For the government Waco was business as usual: keep increasing the level of force and violence until people comply.  What was different at Waco was people resisted and the level of violence reached an unusual degree.