1. Waco
In nineteen ninety, Howell changed his name to David Koresh after David in the Bible and Koresh the Hebrew name for Cyros (Streissguth 143).
In May of nineteen ninety-two, a delivery driver told the sheriff a package containing hand grenades accidentally opened. The Mclemon County Sheriff's office reported this incident to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The agents traced eight thousand pounds of ammunition, M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, and military weapons to the Branch Dividians. The agency drew up plans to make a raid (145-146).
On February twenty eighth, more than one hundred agents of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms stormed into the Branch Davidians compound outside Waco, Texas, in search of illegal weapons. A firefight took place, killing four agents and six of the cult members. More than four hundred federal agents and police surrounded the seventy seven-acre compound (Phillips 19). Seven hundred and twenty lawmen were in town from federal agencies and Texas Department of Public Safety (Reavis 263).
After talking with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the cult leader, David Koresh, agreed to surrender peacefully, if a local radio station broadcasted a fifty-eight minute message. The authorities complied and the sermon went out over the air. After the message went out, Koresh changed his mind, saying that God had told him to wait for a sign (Phillips19).
On March twenty ninth, the Federal Bureau of Investigation allowed lawyers to enter the compound to meet their clients. Dick De Guerin, Koresh's lawyer, expressed that surrender was coming. On April fourteenth, Koresh promised to surrender when he finished a manuscript on the biblical seven seals (19). Koresh let the lawyers believe he only needed a few more days to complete the seven seals. The Federal Bureau of Investigation showed the letter to an expert at Syracuse University, who concluded it was another delaying tactic (Reno1).
Waco Branch Davidian Disaster On April 19, 1993, the fifty-one day standoff between the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and U.S. government law enforcement agencies ended in a tragic fire, leaving David Koresh and eighty of his followers dead (PBS). ... Instead, in 1981, he went to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious cult that in 1935 had settled 10 miles outside of Waco. ... Waco brought attention to the uncheckability of the bureaucracy. ... They had isolated themselves in a compound outside the city of Waco, Texas, to further their religious devotion (Big Eye). ...
In his thesis, Thomas Barnett notes that the world's countries can be classified between high and low levels of globalization. He notes that the potential of a country to ensure U.S. military response is inversely related to its globalization connectivity and that the enemy is not our religious diff...