Waco Cult Incident

In the recent incident we learned from Class about the Waco Cult, the sheer amount of deaths and action throughout the incident shocked me. This almost seemed like the video game Far Cry 5 to me where there was a cult armed with weapons. The incident had left more than 80 dead through the 51 day standoff. Throughout the Siege, for hours after hour the FBI negotiators tried to sought out an agreement with cult leader, David Koresh. To him, he was the almighty Lamb of God. Commanding men to surrender their wives, and fathering children that were as young as 12 years of age in order to prepare them all for the imminent apocalypse.

When under the siege, Koresh and his cult was confronted with tanks, snipers and multiple combat vehicles, the cult refused to leave either Koresh nor the squalid compound behind. Instead of surrendering within this time period, the cult held children up against the windows with a sign that said "Flames Await." Therefore, with the media and the world broadcasting the event through the news, on the morning of April 19th, 1993 with the FBI team still seemingly divided, the team began their assault with tear gas armed from Army-issue combat vehicles. That attack resulted in only nine cult sect member being alive. A fire was somehow started and fanned by a 30 mph wind. The flames destroyed through the compound and set the deaths of 76 Davidians (cult members) including Koresh and more than 20 children. What this stirred up was not only a craze in America's obsession with reality tv shows but also a lot of anti government people such as Oklahoma Bomber who had killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing claiming to be avenging for Koresh and the Davidians. With this in mind, was it the best decision at the time of the siege to engage in combat and give up the negotiations? What would've happened without the negotiations?