Twin Anniversaries

As Tom Tomorrow reminds us, today is the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing by Timothy McVeigh. 'Course, TT uses this to bash Time mag's decision to slap Ann Coulter on its cover (a decision that's driven much of the lib blogworld crazy over the past 24 -- get a grip, people, it's Time after all), citing Coulter's crass one-liner about how McVeigh should've blown up the NY Times bldg instead. But he does note this terrible event, as do I. Can't imagine what it would've been like to be at the scene after the blast, esp with all those slaughtered and wounded children.

Nor can I imagine what it would've been like to be present while the FBI, aided by the Texas National Guard and the US Army's Joint Task Force Six, assaulted the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, an assault and mass murder (children as well) that took place 12 years ago today.




Apparently, McVeigh and his co-conspirators were so incensed by this state crime that they selected April 19 as their target date two years later. Thus did violence beget violence, in an oh-so American way.

Most libs I've known or encountered really don't care about what happened at Waco. This indifference, in my experience, stems from the fact that Clinton was prez, and they didn't want to embolden his enemies; and also from the idea that David Koresh and his followers were nuts and the world is probably better off without them. When I asked a lib friend who worked at Simon & Schuster for a copy of Dick Reavis's fine book, "The Ashes Of Waco," she became all flustered and short, and asked if I was becoming a rightwinger. (She gave me the book anyway, shaking her head and wondering why I'd want to read such garbage.) I've never understood this at a basic human level. But if George W. Bush had ordered the assault . . . well, y'know what the reaction would've been.