April 19, 2010–Oklahoma City 15 years later
On April 19th, 1993, a neophyte Clinton administration made one of its worst blunders led by a stocky version of Inspector Clouseau, Janet Reno. David Koresh and the Branch Davidian cultists were hunkered down in their compound. Children were being violated. Something had to be done.
Bill Clinton and Janet Reno had every right to do something. They simply did it badly. The compound burned, with the government and the cultists each blaming the other side for starting the fire.
(This is where liberals immediately side with the government because the government was liberal. If George W. Bush was in charge at the time, it would have been seen as a Texas government plot sponsored by Enron and Halliburton. This makes as much sense as blaming Billy Joel, for singing, “We didn’t start the fire.”)
Angered by the siege at Waco, Texas, in addition to the shooting of Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, two men decided to resort to domestic terrorism.
On April 19th, 1995, two events occurred. The “other” event rightfully got lost in the shuffle, but I point it out to show how history can be affected.
That morning, Indiana Senator Dick Lugar announced his campaign for the 1996 presidency. Lugar is a bright, thoughtful individual, but his dark horse candidacy never stood a chance as his campaign announcement was overshadowed. He was an expert in foreign policy, but this act of domestic terrorism led to a very normal rallying around the flag for President Clinton. Ever the gentleman, even Mr. Lugar himself would admit that the other occurrence on that day was more important.
On April 19th, 1995, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols murdered 168 people by bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
McVeigh and Nichols blamed the federal government, including Clinton and Reno. This was an outrageous train of thought. Clinton and Reno badly handled the Waco standoff, but their intentions were honorable. They were trying to save the lives of children. McVeigh and Nichols were mass murderers.
Yet while it was totally wrong to accuse Clinton of Oklahoma City, it was equally wrong of Clinton to be an accuser.
Long before Rahm Emanuel mentioned that a crisis should never go to waste, Bill Clinton and the left used the Oklahoma City bombing to demonize the right.
Dianne Feinstein tried to use the tragedy to push for tougher gun control laws, even though that had nothing to do with this situation.
Bill Clinton blamed Rush Limbaugh for the tragedy. After all, the left defines hate speech as anything they disagree with, and Limbaugh was very successful in helping the Republicans take over the congress in 1994. Attacking Limbaugh was a way to reenergize the Democrats before the 1996 elections.
(Fox News did not exist at the time, although future history books will blame them anyway for failing to rally to Clinton’s side before their first broadcast ever happened.)
As is the American tradition, we rallied around the good people of Oklahoma City. Governor Frank Keating kept a calm, steady hand. The real heroes were ordinary police officers, who quickly tracked down the killers. Luck played a role, as a routine traffic stop led to the plot being uncovered.
Oklahoma City is fresh in my mind because I took my first visit there one month ago.
On March 13th, I spoke to the National Federation of Republican Women at their Winter Conference. Ladies from all over the country came to the heartland. Time did not allow me to take in an Oklahoma Thunder basketball game, which was down the block from my hotel.
Yet with only hours before my flight took off, I was also only blocks from the Oklahoma City memorial.
The outdoor memorial contains a wall of pictures by young children. Children capture truth in a way that adults sometimes do not do.
There were sad faces with raindrops of tears. There were signs thanking the rest of America. There were kids asking the question that adults ask…Why?
None of these kids blamed Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, or Rush Limbaugh. They blamed the bad people.
Some kids drew pictures of sunshine peering out from clouds, to show better days ahead. Other kids just took imprints of hands shaking other hands. Stick figures of random strangers of all colors and sizes hugging each other were scattered throughout.
15 years later, some things have not changed.
What was the left doing in the days leading up to April 19th, 2010?
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were blaming Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and tea party attendees for conditions that caused Oklahoma City.
They just can’t stop.
The people of Oklahoma overwhelmingly vote Republican. They are by and large conservatives.
This is relevant because these people condemned the violence that killed their fellow Oklahomans. They would not vote for a party or support an ideology that supports terrorism and indiscriminate murder.
Nobody in their right mind or heart would believe that any television program, radio show, or mainstream politician had anything to do with this.
The ugliest strain of thought by some on the left offered the “chickens coming home to roost” argument. Oklahomans reaped what they sowed by supporting and “fanning the flames of hate” by being conservatives.
(Notice this argument does not get transmitted to liberals for 9/11 in NYC).
Some on the left will deny that anybody offered that argument, but they did.
This was a horrible act perpetrated by a pair of evil people. That is it.
It was not Christian terrorism. Timothy McVeigh was not a Christian, despite the best efforts of those wanting to show that Christianity is anywhere near as evil as Radical Islam.
For those who want to blame Clinton, Reno, Limbaugh, Gingrich, or anybody else but McVeigh and Nichols, just realize that you are dishonoring the victims in Oklahoma City and their families.
Have we learned anything from Oklahoma City?
I see the left accusing the right of stoking hatred. The left accuses the tea party attendees of racism, and then shows up with racist signs pretending to be conservatives. Every tragic act in this country is blamed on Limbaugh, Fox News, tea party attendees, and the new devil incarnate, Sarah Palin.
Cities are dying, and rather than analyze liberal mayors, Ronald Reagan is blamed.
George W. Bush was the governor of Texas at the time, but I am sure somehow he will shoulder some of the blame for failing to stop McVeigh during the Clinton years.
The world needs less blame and more love. The children that drew those pictures did not see left or right. They saw good and evil, hate and love.
Go to Oklahoma City. Look at the mural. See what the good kids of Oklahoma had to say to the rest of America.
They don’t want blame. They want peace and love.
On April 19th, 2010, that is what I wish for the people of Oklahoma City.
Peace.
eric
April 19th, 2010 at 11:52 am
All this fear mongering has to stop.
No one on the right is threatening any kind of violence. Yeah, there may be a few nuts that think they represent us and do something stupid, but they are nuts.
This persistent suggestion and talks of potential violence on anyones part has to stop. The people need to refocus and place their thoughts elsewhere.
My heart goes out to the victims.
When this happened I heard it on the radio at work. I was not politically inclined at the timeor even active enough on the subject to give a sht whether it was right or left extremism.
It was just some moron pee’d off with some loose screws.
April 19th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
The order to storm the enclave of nuts was irresponsible to begin with.
In fact, those in charge were already incarcerate, surrounded by
law enforcement people. The siege should never have gotten to the
violent outcome.
Those people inside, (including the children) were killed needlessly.
Better to be captive by the nut job founder of this movement for awhile
than die in a hail of gun fire, explosives, etc.
The incident later with that Cuban boy, apprehended by Janet,
was also inexcusable.
The President should have been impeached, but not for the reasons
given.
The group that bombed that building in Oklahoma, was part of
a network of hundreds, if not thousands of right wing militants,
( see latest incident in Michigan of people who are arming to fight
the anti-Christ, even if it means killing local law enforcement and
bringing down the US government (ZOG-Zionist Occupied Government),
as they like to refer to it at times.
After the Oklahoma bombing, many of the groups disbanded.
They are now starting up again according to people who watch these
sorts of things.
While I don’t personally appreciate the screaming and shouting at
the Tea Parties and other protests ( we have an electoral process
in this country), it cannot compare to the militants on the fringes, either
left or right.
The Chicago 8 were wrong in their method of protesting and were
arrested. Trying a citizens arrest of Karl Rove was wrong, as was
the heckling of Michael Oren (Israeli ambassador to the USA).
The yearly protests at the U of Irvine by pro-Palestinian groups is
wrong, when they go over the line.
With over 250 million guns in private hands…we cannot afford
incidents of violence, caus someday, more than the extreme militants
will take out their anger.
This is the bottom line.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Dont lap up the drivel given by lame stream media Oklahoma city was another false flag attack like 9/11. Instead the FBI made sure no one saw the real video this time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5v8v4P1-Qc