Waco – The
Rules of Engagement
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Program: B
The
massacre of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas is still one of the most
distorted news stories of the last twenty five years. William Gazecki’s examination of the matter,
the 1997 documentary Waco – The Rules of
Engagement, has won multiple awards and most people still have not seen it
or know what was really going on.
Under the
Clinton Administration and Attorney General Janet Reno’s watch, the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms used warrants to besiege the Compound over
supposedly illegal weapons. Whether that
was even legitimate to begin with is problem number one. One thing led to another and 76 men, women,
and children had been killed by the ATF, versus four ATF agents. The media still
portrays it as an incident where David Koresh was the insane, delusional,
leader of a cult where he thought he was a Christ figure and (though the ATF
has no jurisdiction in the following matter), was having sex with underage
female followers and other children. To
this day, that propaganda has very effectively silenced the truth about what we
may fairly consider the Clinton answer to Kent State.
The
initial accusation was that Koresh and company were “stockpiling” arms, but the
word was being used very loosely to twist the fact that some of the Davidians
were gun dealers who were just holding “inventory” that was (and still is
legal) at the time. One of the reasons Clinton made it into office was to rebuff
the Religious Right, but this event went off the deep end in the totally
opposite way. The ATF did not act in
cautious legal ways, but as a full-scale military operation without any
consideration or regret as to the results, except in the way it was mediated. It is media they were also trying to control.
Just as
shocking is the mainstream press’ stunning inability to even care about the
truth, let alone tell anything clearly or free of contradiction. This extends to press people joking in the
face of who was murdered. The media that
is always accused of being so desensitized is more than ever filled with
employees who are at least as desensitized.
They even make fun of the Branch Davidian plea for real press coverage
by joking “God help us, we are the press” in a group videotape shot. The “humor” extended to the tired,
experimental, still unexplained use of loud music and animal sounds, possibly
used to get the Davidians crazy enough to come out and open fire, so the ATF
had an “excuse” to kill them. The
callousness and accessory status of the press to the murders is unprecedented.
To say
that the Davidians had their rights, space, peace, and lives relentlessly mowed
over figuratively and literally is unbelievable. Even if Koresh was guilty of everything they
said he was, they were judge, jury, and executioner. This should have been the opportunity for the
Right to get Clinton, but the similarities between the
Davidians and the likes of The Moral Majority and 700 Club is just too much to
bear. That is why the Monica Lewinsky
affair seems more pathetic than ever.
Because
“religious nuts” and “lone nuts” (read Lee Harvey Oswald) are the same
press-perpetrated stereotypes that make 90% of the population tune out, they
could care less who got killed. Columbine
and similar school massacres have been disturbingly trivialized the same
way. Saddest of all, it took the events
of 9/11/01 for the pres to finally back off from these kinds of
tactics, but the attitude has just gone underground and only become worse. Remember Elian Gonzales? It is amazing the similarities in how Reno handled that to this when she had
him abducted to be returned to Cuba!
The
documentary as it stands offers all the evidence needed to back all these
events and be the foundation for the aforementioned allegations. The events was newer six years ago, so we
have to give the filmmakers and editors the benefit of the doubt that they did
not have the time to further analyze the situation and have not issued a
sequel. As a matter of fact, the
ramifications of what happened has only just begun to sink in and it is not
pretty, even after the fiasco of the 2000 Presidential Election (see my review
for Unprecedented on this matter
elsewhere on this site).
So much
for the alternative media the internet is supposed to offer, but now that this
documentary is finally on DVD, we can hopefully get more people to hear the
evidence of all the things that were outrageously censored. This has played on cable, in theaters, won an
Emmy Award, received an Academy Award nomination, and received nothing but
raves. The TV show is right; the truth
IS out there.
The full
frame image is various throughout the 136 intense minutes of viewing
offered. Most of it is in color, but the
types of videotape is more various than usual in definition and clarity. The majority of what is seen is older
footage, but there are instances of newer footage for the new interviews. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is nominal and
offers limited Pro Logic surrounds, save the music, but the quality of most of
the videotape footage’s sound is not going to have surrounds. Those in the known would hardly expect that.
Extras
include the nightvision (FLIR) footage of the attack, which in fairness to the
press, they could have never caught on tape or even seen. That lasts about a half-hour, as well as the 9-1-1 call from a Davidian calling for
them to “call them off” from killing innocent people. There are the promo clips for the broadcast
of the main program of the True Stories Network, the theatrical trailer, and
even updates on what happened to all the participants.
To
explain further would ruin the impact and points so clearly made here, but Waco – The Rules of Engagement must be
seen by everyone who is serious to know about what is really going on in the United States.
It is as vital as anything Michael Moore has done, and those who have
not seen it need to stop being distracted by David-Koresh-as-nuts and see what
else was nuts about this massacre.
- Nicholas Sheffo
