Most readers might not remember Daniel Ellsberg, but for those of us who came of age during the Vietnam War, the maelstrom that formed around him and his actions helped to define that era. Ellsburg, of course, is famous because he leaked a number of internal...
Thirty years ago, Waco radicalized a teenage grocery clerk in Austin, Texas. Scott Horton was horrified both by the televised carnage of the FBI assault and by the mindless support for the feds he heard voiced by suburban housewives. Unlike the national media, Scott...
One of the most infamous standoffs in American history ended when employees of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team (and possibly the Army’s Delta Force) launched a tank and gas attack on the Branch Davidian’s Mount Carmel religious center and communal home northwest of...
“Robbing banks was never the point...Payback’s coming, and it’s coming sooner than you think,” said a Neo-Nazi bank robber named “Wild Bill” in Showtime’s Waco: The Aftermath, which premiered Friday. Wild Bill’s statement was a foreshadowing of the Oklahoma...
After decades of stewardship of the Middle East, during which the United States pursued the absurd policy of not talking to its enemies and creating and enforcing blocs to oppose and isolate those enemies, the predictable outcome occurred. The region was left with...
Thirty years ago, FBI tanks smashed into the ramshackle home of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. After the FBI collapsed much of the building atop the residents, a fire erupted and 76 corpses were dug out of the rubble. Unfortunately, the American political...
As a state grows, it always tries to find more ways to limit the freedom of its people. In the best case, this might take the form of pervasive surveillance and perpetual nudges. Yet it rarely stops there. The state might decide to support ill-advised adventurism...
Future historians may say that the most significant event of 2023 had nothing to do with Donald Trump, other 2024 presidential candidates, or even the war in Ukraine. Instead, the event with the most long-term significance may be one that received little attention in...
