L'assedio di Waco

Waco happened at a time of my life when I was becoming aware of the wider world outside of my experience. It's not something that I have particularly obsessed about - it's just something that happened in the media and I remember. This documentary claims that it has never before seen footage and interviews - but one is left with the feeling that all of this information was already known. In 1993, a religious group with apocalyptic views and a large stockpile of illegal weapons was raided by the ATF and the FBI. The initial raid went poorly because the members of the cult were tipped off by a local reporter. Four federal agents were killed. A siege ensued at the end of which the compound burnt down and 80 people were killed. A narrative has developed overtime, among far Right groups in the United States that this is an example of a government overstepping its rights and massacring its people. The details of what happened are controversial because the two main groups in the conflict are a religious cult and a massive Federal bureaucracy with its own conflicting groups, aims and goals. Here is what can be determined by the outside observer. The Branch Dravidians did violate firearm rules and regulations that were in place at that time. If you are pro guns and say that the American government overstepped its bounds - just know that the next raid probably would have been connected to the fact that David Koresh was a pedophile. The American government did have a good reason to start the raid. But it cannot be understated how poorly they handled the situation. It's a special sort of hubris in the American psyche that repeatedly leads to situations like this. Waco is a good example - but so is the invasion of Iraq. We have confident people being blinded by their own competence. There's a great line from one of the interviewees who was on the negotiating team. He said the paradox of power is that when you use power you don't often get the result that you want, you are met with resistance. And it seems like the negotiating team was doing a good job of getting people out of the situation before more aggressive methods were used. But the people who died at Waco, at least the adults who were in that situation, we're not martyrs. It is controversial whether the fire that ultimately burned the compound down was started by the federal agents or was started by the members of the cult. But what is not controversial is the fact that when the fire started, the members of the cult did nothing to get the children out of that building. So in my opinion, that's murder. You could make the argument that they were afraid to go outside because they would be shot by the federal agents - the federal agents had been encouraging everyone all morning to come outside and surrender. And multiple people had left the compound before then and were not massacred. And even if there was a chance, a slight chance, that you could save your children, you should have taken that chance. Why didn't that happen? Because most of those children were the children of David Koresh - the cult's leader. And some of his brides were 11 or 12 years old. Even this documentary ends with a dedication for those who died in those who remained. Which means you dedicating your documentary to David Koresh? Just because the government screwed up doesn't mean that David Koresh wasn't a screw-up.

... are the last words of this documentary. And I just wanted to honour that excellent statement by making it the title of my review.

Like many people, I of course had once heard of "Texas Waco". But when I now think of it, I have to admit that I actually never knew or understood what it really stood for. Yes, I had an idea that it had to do with some kind of cult where many people lost there lives. But, it was this documentary that made me aware for the first time of what actually happened there.

I think it is worth to mention that - after seeing this documentary - that I am amazed that Netflix even produced this documentary. This since it appears to be a really black page in the history of the USA.

The most impressive is to see that the team behind the documentary was able to get many important people included in the documentary. And this from all sides: ATF, FBI, media, and even more impressive, the "Davidian" people that were present in the location. So you will be able to hear the experiences from snipers, negotiators, "cult"-members, politicians, journalists ... and even one of the first ATF agents that entered the building, got shot and was brought to hospital.

This allows the viewer to at least create a "fair" opinion of whom was involved and responsible for the so-called "Waco Massacre". And mind you, even people of the FBI itself were critical of how the situation was handled with.

The documentary impressed me in such a way, that it even made me check on the internet on how the government commemorates the events that happened on that location. And it amazed me that - on a spot where over 80 people died - only one small memorial was placed: i.e. For the 4 ATF agents that died... The other 80 people that lost their lives - including 20 innocent children - seem to go lost. It in some kind of way is a continuation of denial of the ugly events that happened at the site.

And that is why I think this documentary is so important to watch. Because the government clearly doesn't come out unscathed. And the viewer is even reminded of that by showing some direct events that happened a few years later (not mentioning them to prevent spoiling it).

Concluding, I want to mention that I will not give a rating. Just out of respect of the many lives lost. Giving any rating - either high or low - will not do justice to how ugly the events are that you will learn of. I mean, how can I rate something either positive when I see so-called "hero-shots" of ATF and FBI agents poaching with their guns in front of tanks that were used in events where many people got killed. And how can I rate something negative when you see the way that many people involved - from either side - cry tears about the events that occured. And mind you, that's tears from the most hardened FBI agents... I can only say that this documentary deserves an Academy Award for how honest it is in displaying these ugly events.

As a final remark of my review, I want to say that I will not easily forget the words of an FBI person:

"I don't know what hell looks like..." (long silence) "... maybe that".

Pretty much definitive proof that the fbi, atf & cia are as sociopathic & insane as David Koresh. Fact 1: Who would order an attack after the element of surprise cover was blown hours before. That's like phoning Hitler & saying we're going to attack your left flank in 2 hours so get ready. What Einstein came up with this idea? Fact 2: Sending home the hostage negotiator while it was still working effectively. Beyond stupid. Command Einstein play 2. Fact 3 Running over the trapped civilian vehicles with tanks. Always a solid plan to antagonize & further inflame the situation. It's like the mind of a 10 year old. "I'm going to punch you out at the monkey bars at recess". Fact 4: Arresting anyone that exits the compound & sending them directly to jail, thus eliminating the chances of anyone else exiting the compound. The list of mistakes made goes on & on. Did none of the government agencies receive any training? Like I wrote earlier...sociopathic, insanity & lets add wildly incompetent. Unbelievable! Be alert April 19th as it now seems to be a flashpoint of the dissatisfied.

As you can see from some of the reviews here, misinformation about Waco still abounds.

The warrant WAS to search for automatic weapons. Specifically semi-automatic weapons converted into machine guns. Such conversions are 100% illegal. Not only did the agents on the ground testify to hearing automatic weapons fire, so did the journalists present. This is also all in addition to them recovering automatic weapons after the fire.

Meanwhile another reviewer insists that if the Davidians had grenades that they would have exploded in the fire. I can only imagine this reviewer was simply not paying attention because 1) Footage of the initial shootout captured the sound of very loud explosions which were implied to be the grenades and 2) There WAS a very large explosion at some point during the fire. Even if those explosions and the large one during the fire could not be attributed to grenades, that doesn't mean the Davidians weren't attempting to construct them, which is all that the delivery driver's finding of an empty grenade hull actually ever implied.

The documentary also did very little to explore the issue of who fired first, despite there being an enormous amount of theories and speculation about this--both theories that the ATF did and to the contrary. It instead simply gives the benefit of the doubt to the ATF agents, which is pretty far from unbiased or definitive. Not even to suggest they're lying, they just could have been mistaken.

The one piece of information this documentary DID provide that's usually absent in many Waco documentaries is the audio recording of Davidian members discussing pouring fuel and distributing hay, which implies they were setting the fires. It also includes FLIR footage from helicopters which shows the flames beginning simultaneously at three different locations, which does not support theories suggesting the FBI HRT set the fires either intentionally or unintentionally.

Despite what you believe about what happened that day on Waco, this documentary takes the side of the government's explanation of the event, and I think it's unfortunate that it doesn't provide more substance to support that. It's not that I disagree with it, it's just that it spends much more time interviewing people who clearly have a stake in the matter and whose views can't be seen as impartial by any means, rather than reviewing cold hard facts, which are readily available.

Beyond that, it doesn't really give equal time to all those involved, and it seems to be unfairly weighted to make the HRT operation seem to be at fault for things going so badly. The Davidians were presented as religious fanatics who didn't know any better, the FBI negotiation team was presented as the only voice of reason involved, and the HRT was painted as simply a gungho force of overly aggressive soldiers who unnecessarily escalated things. Given what the documentary did show, it's hard not to agree with it, but considering that only ONE member of the HRT was interviewed, it feels pretty slanted and like there's much more to the story left out--and having watched many other Waco documentaries, I know there is.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed, especially given that this is a Netflix docuseries. With their propensity for turning small subjects into 8 episode installments of mind numbing minutia, it's really surprising that they dropped the ball so hard making only 3 episodes for this when SO many more facets of the event could have been explored. It just feels extremely incomplete and shallow, examining only the very surface of the event.

On the other hand, there is an abundance of never before seen footage, and what's more some footage that's been seen before with this level of video quality. They really knocked it out if the park as far as collecting and presenting stock footage, creating visual representations of what happened, etc. But unfortunately the actual informative quality seemed to suffer because of that.

The best I can say for it is that it's phenomenal supplemental footage to other information that's already available. The worst I can say is that it's very shallow and biased in its dissemination of information about the event. Overall, worth a watch, but by no means comprehensive.

I was only a child when the OK bombing happened, on my birthday of all days. I had heard of Waco before, but didn't know the whole story or that the two were related.

This was a really tragic event, started by one side that was asking for trouble, but both sides are to blame for the outcome. The real tragedy is the kids. Everyone else had plenty of time to make their decision to stay or leave, but the kids are the real victims.

What's crazy about this doc is comparing it to society today. Thinking about how many others out there have the ability to manipulate others so much, that many of them would rather die than to look at their life choices and lack of logic, and change.