Best Answer:
Yes, he was. Prior to 9/11, the Oklahoma City attacks were the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. This puts conservatives, who routinely argue that terrorism is somehow unique to Islam and Muslims, in an awkward position. McVeigh was a white, native born, American Christian. He was also a military veteran and a committed right winger (Congress actually passed a law after his conviction to prevent people who commit crimes like his from being buried in military cemeteries). McVeigh was motivated to commit his attacks because of what he saw as assaults on white America by the federal government. First among these was Ruby Ridge. That was a case where this guy Randy Weaver, a white supremacist crank, was arrested for selling illegal guns to an informant. Weaver skipped out on his court date and when the feds came to arrest him a gun battle ensued which left Weaver's teenage son and a US Marshall dead. This kicked off a standoff, with Weaver and a friend being wounded and his wife getting killed before they agreed to surrender. It attracted a lot of attention and sympathy from the right wing at the time. This wasn't just limited to the radical right either. A lot of main stream right wingers sympathized with Weaver. Then came the WACO standoff. The ATF discovered that a Christian fundamentalist group named the Branch Davidians was stockpiling weapons and staged a raid. The raid went badly and result in a month long standoff. When the feds finally moved in the Branch Davidians set their compound on fire, killing most of their members, including several children. McVeigh was actually in Waco for part of the siege, selling right wing literature to lookie loos who had come to see the spectacle. People in general were outraged by the bungled handling of the raid and standoff, but right wingers took it especially hard. After Waco, McVeigh decided that he had to act and commit a terrorist attack against the government.
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Anonymous
· 5 months ago
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