Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 17:28:43 -0400 From: bobhunt@erols.com Subject: [lpaz-repost] The worst act of terrorism in U.S. history? No! To: FishTalk@egroups.com, Individual-Sovereignty@egroups.com, Countdown2NWO@listbot.com, lpaz-repost@yahoogroups.com, MDLP-NEWS@onelist.com, TnLP@egroups.com
http://www.sierratimes.com/archive/files/apr/19/edpz041901.htm
Patriot's day! April 19, 1775
Remember Lexington, Concord AND WACO!
bob hunt
Oklahoma City - an act of terrorism? Yes. The worst act of terrorism in U.S. history? No!
By Paul Zimmerman - 04.19.01
As a libertarian and a student of history, I am struck by the similarities between the present escalation of state power and violence and our own, not-so-distant history.
After the Oklahoma City bombing, the similarities started to fall into place for me. The federal government and their allies in the statist press soon started linking the bombing to Waco and Ruby Ridge and claimed that the bombing was the worst case of terrorism in U.S. history. I started to think back on our history and thought of the many instances of state-sponsored terrorism that make me tremble with rage every time I think about them.
I recall the "Trail of Tears," in which the Cherokee were forcibly removed from their lands in Georgia to the "permanent Indian territory," west of the Mississippi.
In an effort to live in peace and avoid the wrath of the U.S. government and their white neighbors, the Cherokee set out to emulate the Americans. Sequoyah developed a written language for the Cherokee, they published newspapers, wrote a constitution, adopted American dress and customs and even owned black slaves like their white neighbors. They prospered and soon their white neighbors looked at their successful farms and businesses with envy, instead of the respect and admiration that the Cherokee had anticipated. Soon the Americans were petitioning the government to do something. The government agreed and announced that they'd be removed to the west.
The Cherokee did not lose faith in their new, "civilized" ways and took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled in their favor. President Andrew Jackson responded by acknowledging that the court had indeed made its decision but was unable to enforce it. He ordered troops to begin the "relocation" of the Cherokee and the other "civilized" tribes (the five "civilized" tribes, so-called because of their assimilation f white ways: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole). To make a long story short, in the autumn of 1838, before they could bring their crops in, the Cherokee were forced at bayonet point to abandon their farms and homes and were marched from Georgia to what is now Oklahoma. Oh yes, history tells us that approximately one in four Cherokee died on the way. Except for the few who escaped to the hills or swamps, the same fate was meted out to the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole.
I tremble with rage when I recall the horrible slaughter of theCheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek in Colorado (1864). The Indian encampment was led by Black Kettle, a "peace chief," who urged peace with the whites. He had been given an American flag, which he flew over the camp as a signal that theirs was a friendly camp. So confident were they in the power of this flag to protect them they slept without sentries as most of their warriors were miles away on a hunt. At dawn, a drunken, murderous Colorado regiment led by Col. Chivington rode down on the camp, slaughtering the people. When asked if Indian infants and children should be spared, the ever-witty Chivington replied, "nits make lice." Chivington and his men engaged in an orgy of murder and mutilation that would have aroused envy and lust in Jeffrey Dahmer. When all was said and done the official body count was 133 dead Cheyenne and Arapaho (105 women and children). The victorious troops, festooned with scalps and dismembered genitalia, were cheered as they paraded through Denver.
Like the aftermath of Ruby Ridge, the initial backslapping and rush of excitement felt by the government was soon replaced with government investigations and insincere apologies. Unlike Ruby Ridge, which has spawned many an "armchair" avenger, the Sand Creek massacre prompted many Cheyenne bands and warriors to wage a ruthless war of revenge on any white they encountered. The federal government soon rose in feigned indignation at these "unprovoked" attacks and relentlessly killed and imprisoned any Indian who ws foolish enough to commit the crime of being found inside Colorado territory. In those days, before multi-million dollar settlements and suspensions with pay, Col. Chivington suffered the loss of his commission in the Colorado militia and reportedly returned to his previous profession as a Methodist minister.
Next, I recall what I judge to be the "worst case of terrorism in U.S. history:" the massacre at Wounded Knee (1890). As I think of it, I am struck by the similarities to Waco, nother government-sponsored kill-fest.
Like the Branch Davidians who died at Waco, the Lakota (Sioux) and Cheyenne who died at Wounded Knee were remnants of a once proud and free people.
The Indians at Wounded Knee were Ghost Dancers. This was a new religion that was spreading across the plains, bringing hope to the few surviving Indians who refused to obligingly lay down and die to make room for the wave of civilization that was destined to manifest itself anyday now.
A Paiute Indian named Wovoka claimed to have had a vision in which all the whites were swept away and the earth was made new again. The vast herds of buffalo and game returned, followed by their dead friends and relatives, alive again. According to Wovoka all the people had to do was pray and dance a special dance that he'd teach them.
A hundred years later some Texans in Waco followed a messiah named David Koresh and they prayed and waited for a new earth and the good life that their messiah had promised.
The Lakota and their Cheyenne relatives became fevent "Ghost Dancers." They danced night and day until they'd fall into a trance and see their long lost husbands and wives and the herds of buffalo and they'd escape the horror that was their reality.
At both Wounded Knee and at Waco the government took a dim view of the religious practices and condemned the goings-on as a dangerous cult. After properly demonizing the Indians as heathens and dangerous, gun-toting savages and the Branch Davidians as gun-toting, child-molesting cultists, the government moved in troops for a showdown.
The troops sent in to confront the Lakota were ostensibly sent to arrest their leaders and disarm and disband the group. Ditto for Waco. Someone, no one knows who, fired a shot and all hell broke loose at Wounded Knee in 1890. A little over a hundred years later, the same scene was played out in Waco.
The final tally at Wounded Knee was nearly 300 Indian dead, mostly women, children and the elderly. At Waco the body count consisted mostly of women and children.
Oklahoma City an act of terrorism? Yes. The worst act of terrorism in U.S. history? No!
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