Today is the anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. At 9:02am White Nationalist Timothy McVeigh set off a U-Haul truck loaded with 55 gallon drums filled with anfo* explosives that killed 168 men, women, and children. The truck was parked in the street directly in front of the building's daycare center insuring a heavy loss of life among these youngest victims. An additional 680 men, women, and children were injured. This remains the largest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
We pledged it then and I repeat it now: We Will NEVER Forget!
*ANFO - Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel Oil mixture Makes a very powerful explosive.
Comments
Thank you, Karen.
Thank you, Karen.
It is also the anniversary of the end of the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX, which is why McVeigh chose the date.
And tomorrow is the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
I'd simply call him a
I'd simply call him a criminal, not a terrorist. The sole difference is that he wasn't deliberately targeting "innocents". (trying to come up with a better word, not sure I can). He was targeting the _government offices_. I.E., nominally an acceptable war target.
Still a reprehensible piece of crocodile dung.
I'm still upset that they let the Ruby Ridge snipers get off scot free, as well as the murderers involved in the Waco fiasco. Every one of them needed to be charged and go through the court system.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Sorry, disagree
McVeigh was a terrorist, period. While he was attacking the government offices, he knew fully well that that majority of the people in the building were not government agents. He selected the parking place for the truck because it was directly outside the daycare center, in order to maximize the number of infant deaths. That's terrorism in my book. "Acceptable war target"? Now, that is BS.
Ruby Ridge was a farce and a coverup, no doubt about it.
Waco. While the final attack was certainly questionable, the fact remains that David Koresh had numerous opportunities to surrender peacefully, or to at least allow the women and children to be safely escorted out of the area. Koresh refused all attempts to scale down the tensions. After Ruby Ridge it was obvious the government would not let the presence of women and children force them to back down. Koresh was stupid, he was also a fool. The ultimate trigger was Koresh, he made the fatal mistake of believing his own PR. The murders at Waco were Koresh's own people. He instructed them to make sure that none of the Branch Davidians escaped the compound. In my book that makes him a mass murderer right up there with the Nazis.
So there is no legal or moral justification for McVeigh's actions. He remained a White Nationalist and domestic terrorist right up to the day he was put to death. I had friends in that building. I would have been more than happy to push the button, pull the handle or whatever on him. There are a lot of us around here that feel the same way.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
White terrorism
I have always seen a lot of reluctance in the US to label white terrorists as terrorists.
It is very similar to how easy it was to label loyal Japanese-American citizens because of their similarities to their enemy while conveniently not interring all those white German-Americans and other assorted white Nazi extremists.
Even more striking is during WW2, German prisoners in the US who were given leave find they’re ableto use Whites-only facilities whereas African-American fighting men were still treated as second class citizens.
I grew up with a lot of racism and while things are a bit better now after 6 decades I still find the same ol same ol who would gladly throw me under the bus if it brings about a return to a nation where only whites have the ultimate say in things.
MAWA /s
Waco was a farce. The Waco
Waco was a farce. The Waco Police weren't even informed of it until it had already started. It came out that David Koresh went into town three times a week - alone - to pick up supplies. The entire fiasco was started because they wanted something to make them look better after Ruby Ridge. They could have picked him up in town without any problems, but instead caused the deaths of dozens of people just to try to look good on TV. They all needed to be arrested and charged by the State of Texas, but the feds always wave a magical 'get out of jail free' 'they were doing what they were told' wand.
As for McVeigh - he was a festering heap of crocodile dung, I've already said that - but he wasn't like Kaczynski. Kaczynski is a classic terrorist. The definition of terrorist covers indiscriminate targeting of non-military, non-governmental people and locations. That is, arenas, malls, transportation, and so forth. That was Kaczynski, who targeted relatively random groups for his agenda of anti-technology (nutjob). Government offices are considered acceptable targets by other governments. Remember Desert Storm? As for killing him? I'd have happily done it from 3 feet away, myself. He wanted to make a statement against the government, picking the largest governmental target he could find - but just like our government, he didn't think about the results of that statement.
I'm being a pedant, yes, but I'm fighting a one man fight against the media, who will happily expand the meaning of a word until it has no meaning anymore. It has nothing to do with his race, creed, color, or religion. It has to do with abuse of the language.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
It's a grey zone ...
... between hitting a legitimate target and pure and obvious terrorism. When the amount of "collateral damage" (nobody likes to say "hitting innocent bystanders") rises, the point at which it ceases to be a legitimate target and start to be be primarily a terrorist attack may vary based on who is doing the judging.
But at least in my set of values, when you start to accept "collateral damage" in the same range (or even exceeding it) as the legitimate damage, it has truly entered the sphere of terrorism or war crime (whichever may apply, according to the winner).
Eehh.. 'Collateral Damage'
Eehh.. 'Collateral Damage' is a slippery slope, really. Even if you targeted purely military targets, such as the Pentagon or a military base, you're going to end up getting a whole bunch of civilians. So, almost nowhere other than on a battlefield will you find a target that isn't near some sort of collateral damage. Let's also point out that those responsible for it are never actually brought to task for it. Instead, they retire with a pension.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.