It sure looks like the necessary preparation, manpower, and resources for guarding the Capitol were severely lacking. I've been there for State of the Union, way bigger perimeter.

But I see people saying deadly force should have been used earlier, but I'm not so sure.

Deadly force would have changed things. The USCP probably could have prevented the breech by killing people. Honestly, if you described this chain of events, my assumption would have been dozens dead, mostly rioters.

I'm not convinced that would have been a better outcome.

With the manpower and resources on hand, the tactical decision to focus on protecting the members rather than the building might have been best. You can clearly see that the deadly force perimeter was the chambers until the members were all evacuated.

If you watch the video with the gunfire in the Speaker's lobby, you can also see that the rioters instantly become terrified and retreat, once they realize it's escalated to that level. Not clear how that terror would have been channeled outside, with thousands of rioters.

Obviously, there were huge strategic errors made by law enforcement leaders here. And I'm certainly no expert on security tactics. But given the strategic mistakes, I'm not at all convinced the tactical decisions can easily be seen as wrongl