McVeigh deserves private hell

    Many people once granted Timothy McVeigh some latitude of innocence. As long as he maintained his silence, we had to trust the government in its conviction of the greatest terrorist in America’s history.

    After all, it is difficult to believe that someone like McVeigh could contain so much hate that he could travel to Oklahoma City, park a truck filled with explosives, light the fuse and walk away from the destruction that followed.

    But now, we understand the evil within the man.

    Now, in a book just recently published, McVeigh has taken away all doubt people once might have had.

    In American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, reporters for The Buffalo News, McVeigh said he did not know that a day-care center was inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

    This may be an attempt on McVeigh’s part to say he is sorry for the 19 children he killed.

    However, he observed the building four times before he bombed it. He could not have missed the children’s center with its artwork proudly displayed on the windows.

    McVeigh’s intention was to make a statement that he refused to accept the government’s handling of incidents at Ruby Ridge and Waco. McVeigh considered the government the big bully who needed to be taught a lesson.

    McVeigh’s lesson was the murder of 168 people.

    Apparently McVeigh’s only regret was that he did not destroy the building. He did not bring it totally down. The deaths of the children were considered merely “collateral damage.”

    McVeigh has yet to apologize for his actions. The apology never will come from this man who was brought to tears while watching the disaster at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco.

    McVeigh told the authors of the book that he was two blocks away from the building when he was lifted off the ground. As he continued to flee, he said the song, Dirty for Dirty, by Bad Company came to his mind.

    “What the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge was dirty. And I gave dirty back to them at Oklahoma City,” he said.
    We now have a full picture of this man who tried to prove the government was the big bully who must be destroyed. He proved he is the big bully who must be destroyed.

    McVeigh had his perfect marketing plan. He planned to murder as many people as he possibly could, despite his knowledge that many children were inside that building.

    While much is made about the deaths of the children, we cannot forget that all the others killed were totally innocent.

    We should never expect remorse on his part. We should never expect regret. He feels content that he has succeeded in bringing the government to its knees.

    McVeigh’s actions did nothing to take the government to its knees. He ruined the lives of thousands of people who had no control or direct power in the government.

    The government is not a living, breathing entity. Much as people forget this, the government is merely a word. No one can take an eraser and remove the government.

    The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building was the misguided attempt of a terrorist to prove a point. He thinks he succeeded in making that point, but he failed.

    McVeigh told the authors, “Isn’t it scary that one man could reap this kind of hell?”

    Yes, it is scary that one man could reap his kind of hell. Now it is time to send him to his own hell.