Was the ATF in the right, invading the Waco, Texas, Branch Dividians compound?

I feel very strongly about this and I am curious as to what you all think. I know some of you may not know what I am talking about here so please take a moment and search for some information on the internet but be careful what you read, there are so many ideas on what happened at the Waco compound. I will tell you all how I feel at the end of the conversation if anyone cares.
I will let you know that I feel this is one of the greatest disgraces our gov’t has ever placed upon other American citizens.

It’s damn hard to know without having been there, in their shoes. It’s been quite a while, so I’m not sure I’m remembering right, but didn’t the Branch Davidians set fire to the compound with their people inside? I know there was some speculation that perhaps the gov’t had set it ablaze, but never saw any proof. Am I missing anything?

I was seven and have only vague recollections about this. You’ve gotten me interested.

I’m off to educate myself, hopefully I shall return with an opinion.
Thanks Judo.

EDIT: Holy shit. I didn’t know that many people died. I’m already pissed.

@augustlan No, the Branch Dividians never set flame to themselves. The CS gas that was deployed in to the building is highly flameable and when it burns it produces cyande. There was a tank that fires upon the building and also pours CS gas in to the building.

They should have definitely gone about it differently. They knew there were many weapons, women and children in the compound, and had heard threats of violence. They knew he was unstable and still decided to to have a shootout with the guy and his cohorts. Hopefully, they have changed their tactics because it was a really dumb move.

I agree with Judochop, that is indeed a black smear on the American government for behaving the way they did towards those people. I watched a documentary on it recently can’t recall the name and it was pretty bad what they showed, just in having captured it on film what was happening there.

A real tragedy, and unnecessary in my opinion.

It really, really, really seemed to me all along like these people were keeping to themselves, and it was getting blown way out of proportion. And when they acted, it was like putting out a candle with a firehose.

As an aside, I was driving through Texas, went right through Waco when that was happening.

The government should have used old fashioned siege tactics. Prevent any contact with the outside, cut off utilities, water and telephone service and just wait. I doubt that it would have taken long before people started to leave.

And the government did eventually figure out how to do it right.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E2DB1439F935A25755C0A960958260

The whole thing is a load of government behavior bullshit.

I actually studied with Koresh in the late 1980’s, and I think he was a nut case. I noticed that all the children looked like him, and was creeped out, and do not have sympathy for him.

That said, I think the Gov. murdered those people, and botched that whole deal. The Gov. acted improperly to the Nth degree.

I have some serious reservations about the power and the abuse of said power utilized by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies (i.e. – FBI, ATF, CIA, NSA, to name just a few acroynms) and as far as Waco was concerned, it certainly appeared to me that the FBI and ATF overstepped their bounds and committed some sinister violations of their directives.

In case anyone is interested, I would HIGHLY recommend watching a documentary called “WACO – The Rules of Engagement”. It is very sobering, interesting, and even scary in how it discovered many facts about the entire Waco affair that was either disregarded by the media or kept quiet by the U.S. government. It is conspiracy at its best and the answers are very damning.

They were executed as an example to all would-be
‘cultists’ everywhere. Mormons are also persecuted,
as they have a very strong loyalty to one another,
and their loyalty to the State is questioned,
despite their proclaimed belief of abiding by
National Law..