From: Scott Fabbri <tomservo@access.digex.net>
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 95 11:48:09 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Force Ratios
Message-ID: <199509071847.OAA08292@access5.digex.net>
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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

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