3 points...
first, hindsight is 20/20...
second, atf could've grabbed koresh in town and
avoided this whole incident...
third, and most important, 51 days is significant...
lets be realistic, these people were not going to
the gulag, they would have been processed, made
bail and walked and the vast majority would not been charged
with anything...
the failure to surrender was indicative of koresh's control over these people and justified the government's decision to intervene to prevent a jonestownian event...
now, frac, before you go postal, i said "intervene"...
with the real and logical possiblility of mass suicide and the afore
mentioned presence of women and children, how should
the government responded???
i think the govt messed up by not grabbing koresh well
away from the compound...but once that opportunity was lost
what should the govt have done???
and you should know, the govt will never retreat from
such an encounter, you can rage all you want, but that
is never going to happen so treat that as a constant for
purposes of your response...