Much like other similar situations (think Koresh), they had a lot of better options. They could just slowly whittle away at them, because at some point, people have to leave the compound to get food. So just arrest them then. Keep doing this. Wait until you get enough leaders that the place basically isn't functioning any more. THEN you move in.
It was absolutely insane they didn't do something like this with Koresh. He routinely left the compound. He had a daily jogging routine, where he was off the compound and by himself. Also, say what you like about him, he was a right cunt, but any time the local police had wanted to talk about something with him, he'd willingly gone in and talked to them. So they could have popped him while he was jogging alone, or just quite simply asked him to come in and answer some questions. His view of himself was such that he would have definitely come in just because he viewed himself as so superior to these LEAs he wouldn't have even been afraid of them.
Instead, the BATF, comprised of fucking idiots and morons, decided charging a heavily armed compound in a U-shaped area with multiple firing positions at high elevation above them was a better approach.
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Also there's a second floor (where iirc most of the shooting came from).
And these goddamn idiots thought charging this frontally was a good idea? And they apparently thought these people were dangerous maniacs. Well, do dangerous maniacs just instantly give up? And as a result of this, we not only got a situation where a bunch of innocent children died, but where a whole generation of militias were born and where Timothy McVeigh was inspired to take an awful revenge.