LewRockwell.com contributor Anthony Gregory says he is saddened by Bob Barr’s recent comments on Waco. During an interview with Glenn Beck, Barr compared 9/11 “Truthers” to people demanding the truth about what happened at Waco. “We gotta move beyond that. I mean there are real problems facing us and the world that we can actually do something about without worrying about conspira[cies] of times past,” Barr said.
Gregory points out that this is yet another issue on which Barr’s position has evolved. Unfortunately, according to Gregory and others who believe Waco was “essentially governmental mass murder,” on this issue, Barr’s position has evolved in the wrong way.
Says Gregory:
One of Bob Barr’s most heroic moments was when he, more than most in his party, stood up to the Clinton administration during the hearings on the 1993 Waco tragedy. It was one of those things that, despite an otherwise mostly statist congressional record, separated him from others and revealed a libertarian streak …
But Barr’s positions has changed, saying we “gotta move beyond” Waco and 9/11, and comparing the two. Gregory points out that the comparison is not exactly apropos. Of Barr’s assertion that 9/11 conspiracy theorizing is “the same sort of stuff,” and comparable to Waco, Gregory says:
What “same sort of stuff” were people saying about Waco? That the government killed those dozens of men, women and children? That it planned an unconstitutional PR siege on the Branch Davidians instead of just arresting David Koresh, waged a propaganda campaign based on lies regarding meth labs, guns, and a hundred other things, conducted psychological warfare on them, cut off their water and access to lawyers, the media and family, threw flash bang grenades at those who tried to leave, got fed up after 51 days and so ran a tank through the home, pumping the building with poisonous and flammable CS gas and fired incendiary devices? Because, so far as I see it, government aggression against the Davidians was severe and homicidal even if we believe the Clintonistas that it was an “inside job” – that the Davidians set the fires – for surely at least some of them were killed, and all of them aggressed against, before the home went aflame.
Gregory concludes his piece by wondering aloud why Barr even had to bring up Waco. What was the point?
GEez, Barr’s answer wasn’t “pro-government” re: Waco at all! (Unless, as noted, you’re a confused 9/11 OGCT mind-zombie.)
Barr just said that the realpolitik is that prosecuting Janet Reno won’t be a part of the Presidential campaign.
Your as
The truly sad thing is many of those baby killers are still being paid by us, some active, some retired.When they should have been tried, convicted and executed for Murder !
It gives me that same feeling in the stomach everytime I’ve though about it for all these years. One thing you athiest miss out on, I know they will be judged one day !
I was under the impression that Barr criticized the Clinton Administration’s handling of Waco only because he had a hard-on for the president he eventually tried to impeach, and not because he thought the government had done anything inherently wrong.
If my impression is correct, he did not change his position.
I don’t think he’s gone pro-government on it. Barr says he was hearing that kind of stuff while he was participating in the hearings. It was during those same hearings that Barr showed his “libertarian streak” as Gregory calls it. Gregory put an evolved position into Barr’s mouth. Unless Barr’s going on the record with Gregory’s self-answered questions, I’m going to assume he meant the folks on the far right that believed Waco was a pre-text for a declaration of martial law and UN invasion – and that he’s more focused on the ongoing wars the government still conducts on its citizens than the battles from years past.
sunshine- It’s still a reversal for Barr to be “pro-Davidian” (for lack of a better term) and then turn pro-government — no matter what he, you, or Gregory think about 9/11.
This is only a reversal if you believe the official government conspiracy theory of 9/11. Perhaps gregory needs to rethink his unfounded belief there.