Word: patriotism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Some recent journalism has suggested that many members of the much broader Patriot movement trace their involvement to a key negative experience with the Federal Government. A close look at Koernke's background, however, suggests not a sharp turn but a straight line. From his teens, Koernke (who declined to be interviewed for this story) has exhibited a fascination with guns and guerrilla warfare, an intense dislike of authority, a grandiose vision of himself with an attraction to the idea of martyrdom, and, as one ally puts it, the ability to "talk until most people have turned to sand...
Armed militias are the mirror reflection of the paramilitarization of federal law enforcement. The frightening images of tanks, helicopters and armored carriers assaulting the compound in Waco, Texas, encouraged many fearful, disturbed people to stockpile arms, play guerrilla-patriot and wait for the Apocalypse. The Oklahoma City bombing is Act II of the Waco tragedy. Act III will follow the "politics of escalation" because militias are the new Viet Cong to be rooted out of their enclaves. The government has not yet admitted to itself that it is already infected with a militaristic virus that has spread to many...
...participate actively in "organizations that espouse supremacist causes." However, such allegiances do exist among the rank and file. In 1986, for instance, three Marines from North Carolina's Camp Lejeune were ousted for membership in a white supremacist group. One Marine testified that he had supplied the White Patriot Party, a white supremacist group, with explosives and weapons. In 1991 an Army Green Beret sergeant pleaded guilty to stockpiling weapons and explosives and funneling them to white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Pentagon officials admit they are troubled by the existence of two underground newsletters circulated in military...
...this innocent is arguable. While dressing in camouflage gear and holding training retreats and rallies may be their main pursuits, it is clear that the members, along with those in similar groups throughout the country, nurture a profound paranoia about the Federal Government even as they express their deepest patriotism. Bureaucrats, militia members believe, are responsible for gun-control laws, like the 1994 Brady law and assault-weapons ban. The militias especially blame the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for the movement's twin tragedies: the deaths of white supremacist Randy Weaver's wife...
Although the Michigan Militia, along with members of other groups, has moved quickly to repudiate any connection with McVeigh or the bombing, the significance of the date on which it took place--April 19--was not lost on those familiar with the patriot movement. Says Ron Cole, a former leader of the Branch Davidian sect who describes himself as a patriot: "It's a date that has a significance like no other day of the year." On April 19, 1775, the Battle of Lexington--the opening salvos in America's Revolutionary War--began. On April 19, 1993, the siege...