Calls for

U.S. Justice Department maven Janet Reno's resignation

are once again resonating in the halls of Congress.

I'm not so

sure I agree with them... this time.

Reno should

have been forced to resign when she refused to appoint a

prosecutor to investigate the president's illegal

campaign contributions from China and subsequent gift of

U.S. military secrets to the Chinese government, and then

obstructed Congress in its efforts to investigate the

matter.

And she

should be forced to resign if it's found that she

intentionally covered up the fact that incendiary devices

were used in the military style attack on the Waco, Tex.

compound of religious extremist/gun whacko David Koresh

in 1993.

But at this

point there's no evidence that she knew about the

pyrotechnic tear gas cannisters that were fired at the

compound. And one must assume that she means it when she

promises to find out why it took the FBI six years to own

up to using the devices.

And maybe

the FBI is telling the truth when it says the cannisters

didn't cause the fire that killed 80 people, including 25

children. Maybe the officers on the scene had no

intention of setting the compound on fire, and the Branch

Davidian leader himself or some crazed follower set the

fire to make the FBI and the Bureau of Tobacco and

Firearms look bad.

I'm hoping

everyone comes out looking squeaky clean on this.

But that

whole Waco madness still makes me squirm just a little

uncomfortably.

It's not

often you see hardware like military tanks used against

American civilians, even civilians armed to the teeth as

the Davidians were.

True,

Koresh and his followers were fanatics who killed some of

the agents who came to take their guns away. True, there

was at least some evidence that the children in the

compound might have been abused.

They're

safe now in their graves.

When you

consider that the Davidians were completely surrounded

and there was no danger of their escaping, and that there

were children inside, the response seems heavy-handed.

If that's

all it was - a series of poor decisions by

commanders in the field - then we're talking about a

tragedy.

But power

still corrupts, and we still have to keep an eye on our

government. Most of the people we give guns and badges to

and ask them to defend us from criminals are heroes. But

a few will always give into the temptation to treat those

guns and badges as a license to become thugs, protected

from the consequences of their brutality by the badges

they wear.

It happens,

and if we go to sleep, it could become commonplace.

That's why the founding fathers saw fit to guarantee in

the Constitution that every individual has a right to

bear arms.

Let's hope

this new round of investigation into the Waco incident is

thorough and intense.

We need to

know what the people with the firepower are doing... all

the time.

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