I agree completely.
Though I also agree (with others) that the show of force used there in conjunction with "Operation Liberate Cattle" far exceed any threat, real or wildly imagined, that I can imagine the government could reasonably articulate.
There were fewer federal employees involved in the bin Laden raid.
Hell, there may have been fewer, more lightly armed men involved in the Battle of Fallujah.
Overkill, and very expensive overkill at that.
The tab for that farce had to run, easily, several hundred thousand dollars, if not into $1M.
And then the feds go out and spend an additional ("estimated", tell me that they probably didn't grossly underestimate here) $966,000 to have Halliburton or Blackwater come in an round up the herd for seizure.
In part all of this in order to recoup $1.1M in land use fees.
So far, at an absolute minimum, the government has $3M+ sunk into this.
(With a history of twenty years worth of legal battles between Bundy and the government dating back to the late 1980s I'm sure the government has already spent a great deal of money on this issue but I can't reliably even attempt to quantify it so why bother?)
And for what?
The government estimates that this guy's herd runs about 900 head.
From what I've found just sort of buzzing around the Interwebs a rancher is looking at a profit of just over $1000 a head for free range cattle, assuming he had the means to process the beef himself.
I doubt very much the government just happens to have a vacant abattoir sitting around in Nevada just waiting to be fired up and put into operation so I expect the government would have to hire a contractor at exorbitantly inflated expense in order to have the herd liquidated.
So maybe, MAYBE the government recoups $500,000 of their (very conservatively estimatted) $3 million expense.
And that assumes that Bundy rolls over takes his reaming like a loyal subject.
But what if he continues his fight in court.
What if the State of Nevada decides to fight the states' rights issue, as they appear to be doing, and now the feds have to compete with the resources a State can bring to bear in such a situation rather that just having to contend with the reach of one miserable little rancher?
Now we're talking million of dollars, if not tens of millions, on each side, of taxpayer money being pumped down this sewer as the thing gets hashed out in numerous courts over a period of years.
And all the while the potential exists, I don't know how likely such an outcome would be but the potential certainly does exist, that at some point the State of Nevada or the rancher win in court and the government is out $15 million? $20 million maybe? Maybe more?
It seems like a very ham-handed way of putting the cart before the horse.
The legal fight should happen first and THEN the enforcement action should happen.