I am not sure whether this is your conscious intent, I concede that, but you seem to be bent on mitigating the evil of McVeigh's actions. And I am very skeptical about some of your facts.
I think the problem comes from venue. Your remarks show me that you have been listening to too many public defenders and bleeding hearts who do try to justify the actions of people like McVeigh. When you see someone express doubt about the commonly accepted storyline you assume that they are somehow defending the perp.
Example of your way of thinking
I understand the concept of felony murder. It makes him less evil.
Just how do you think that the Legal concept of Felony Murder somehow makes either the act or the perpetrator "Less Evil"?
You hang for a Felony Murder just as easily as for a premeditated murder for good reason, that would be the perp's "Depraved Indifference for Human Life".
McVeigh not knowing the Child Day care center was in the building does nothing to mitigate the crime of murder , either the murders of the children or the murders of adults he knew to be in the building or likely to be within range of the blast.
The point you are missing is that the intended criminal act is not more or less evil depending on the number of proposed victims vs the number of actual victims, but that this worst act of "Domestic Terrorism" pales in comparasion to those commited by Jihadist Terrorist on practically a daily basis throughout the world, claiming not one hundred or two hundred in a single act but tens of thousands in multiple acts without discrimination or clear cut objectives in mind.
so that McVeighs actions are...less important somehow?
Do you somehow consider the actions of a man now long dead to be as important as those committed on a daily basis today? Mc Veigh isn't likely to be planting anymore bombs now is he.
When was the most recent "domestic terrorist" Bombing you can remember?
How many airliners have been hijacked by "Domestic Terrorists"?
How Many Airliners have been blown out of the Sky by "Domestic Terrorists"?
Which is more dangerous, a dead wolf or a pack of living Rabid dogs?
As I said Domestic terrorism pales beside the threat of Jihadist terrorism.
On the one hand you have small practically insignificant groups of wackos with rare incidents of murderous violence and crnimal activities, on the other you have entire populations whose government meetings end with a prayer for the death of the United states which they call "the Great Satan".
Oklahoma City was not the defining act of this society, it was an aberation.
And I can maintain my suspicions about McVeighs true intentions, mainly because I don't see him as some sort of criminal mastermind. He was a delusional mentally unbalanced A-hole who's high opinion of himself could not handle the possibility that things did not go as he had planned.
When people like that are caught so easily they shift into the mode of "I meant to do that" like a cat that realizes you saw it fall off the table.
Look into the properties of Ammonia Based explosives and youll realize just why no one , not even an engineer or the architect of the building,could have planned on destroying the Murrah Building with a truck bomb of that size parked at that distance from the structure. And just why explosive experts who did not understand the design flaw which resulted in the building coming down believed that a Bomb had been placed inside the structure or that a secondary explosion of explosives illegally stored there as evidence had actually done the damage.
If a guy intends to commit a crime at a certain level and his actions result in many times the expected damage and loss of life he is no less guilty. Probably the persons most shocked by the extent of the damage to the building were those that built the bomb.
Compare the level of destruction of the Murrah building to the relatively light damage done to Khobar Towers. The Khobar Towers bomb was 20,000 pounds of TNT, the Oklahoma bomb was about 4,000 pounds of ANFO which has .44% the power of TNT pound for pound and a much lower Brisance.
If you compare the levels of destruction you'll begin to understand why its highly unlikely that McVeigh would have expected his bomb to cause even one tenth the casualties and destruction that it did.
About thirty five years ago a building I'd been working on a few days earlier collapsed when the brake gave out while they were hoisting a tub of concrete to the roof. I'd been on the crew that manhandled these tubs into position to pour the cells from the top down. The tub went through the roof and the as yet unbraced structure folded in on itself like a house of cards killing all of my crew.
If I had not left the job a few days earlier due to a family emergency I'd have been ground to hamburger along with by friends. They were a great bunch of guys.
The exact same thing happened to a building built on the same design not long afterwards, this time the cable snaped. I haven't worked construction since then.
