Shootout at Texas Cult Compound

There have been so many examples of bureaucratic bumbling that we have come to regard them as the norm rather than as an aberration. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI have raised “the norm� to new heights in the Waco killings of agents and cult members. When the indictments are handed down, shouldn’t some of the sawdust-brained bureaucrats who were responsible for the raid also be named? They admittedly studied the situation for nearly a year before they came to the mind-numbing bureaucratic decision for armed confrontation at a fortress filled with firearms and religious fanatics.

It was also revealed that cult leader David Koresh was under constant observation in his frequent travels to California and elsewhere. Couldn’t he have been arrested outside the fortress on any of a number of charges, leaving his headless organization, like a headless snake, without a bite? Or are the bureaus always in need of fresh martyrs?

CARL F. RANDALL

Malibu