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But the most interesting thing that this emphasized for me was the sort of modern information warfare issues as highlighted in the recent Economist Survey. Info war is war by other means (a little shooting, communications, publicity, and litigation) and look what happened at Ruby Ridge. The Feds deployed 400 "troopies", some armored personnel carriers, copters, executive jets, Hummers, and other hardware. On the other side were 3 adults and 4 children with some 14 personal weapons.
The result. One Fed and two Weavers dead. A $3.1 million legal settlement, and continuing problems for the Feds. That smells like a bad defeat to me. They couldn't even kill 7 people with a 57 to 1 force ratio.
Well. I think if killing the Weaver clan was the primary objective, they could have been much more direct. One plane, one bomb/missile, one pilot, with a 1:7 force ratio (1:2 if you don't count probable noncombatants). Or a SEAL team with tools to make it look like an "accident" (carbon monoxide, maybe? A propane explosion?). However, we generally frown on that kind of thing in our polite society. :-) If the Feds had really wanted to kill the Weavers, it'd probably be called "Ruby Crater" now.
In addition, the operation and the various investigations must have cost the Feds millions more. (What *do* the Fibbies have to pay for those Ninja Hoods?) And they lost.
Murphy's Law applies everywhere. Most likely they really wanted to take Weaver and clan alive (and thought they could!), and the worst possible things happened. (Surprisingly enough, government TLAs know all about the concept of "bad press," and killing bystanders isn't SOP.)
That suggests that the ability of The Great Enemy to overcome the sort of directed human activity of the frictionless markets we are building will be quite limited.
But they don't have to face you directly, just convince someone who allegedly represents you that a "law" is necessary to "save you from yourself" and to "keep our great country free and safe." Then you either play ball, or you wind up with a bunch of balaclava-clad guys in your bedroom one night, taking your computer and dragging you off. Maybe they don't get anything to convict you, but you still have to mount a costly defense. What a great system, eh? Just like the Founding Fathers imagined. - -- Scott Fabbri MSTie #31643 tomservo@access.digex.net "If I knew that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." --Thoreau -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.3, an Emacs/PGP interface iQB1AwUBME898OvEnOI8TfM9AQFLJQL9GV7+YWfPUtBKaF7qbny4KLz7DhxkSrEE TIhCVRiDmuoSnqsUFpM4i4yDQqEJK5lOnxm7mwYyPrKku8Z1JB7SPG5Koq/Vt/QZ UwOnYT0VRNydJVQpIWq7AgnBmIz2wRYe =uMqt -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----