Why did the Government attack Black Mesa?

[Katamariguy]

It was tsupid enough to eliminate all witnesses. But kill the scientists? Did they really want to kill the people who might be the ones who could stop the aliens? And don't get me started on having the black ops attack the H.E.C.U....

 

[Danimal]

How was it stupid enough to eliminate all witnesses?

Imagine you woke up one morning, in the suburban-bubble "Money is Life" lifestyle the Government helps build up around you, only to have it crashing down atop your head when you turn on your idiot box to see nothing but news stories about how the world is going to end - How the big, warm and safe government that's coddled you so closely ****ed up bad with some hidden military-research base you had no idea existed - How you've been told over and over for years how inter-dimensional travel, "aliens", etc. were just products of Sci-Fi and no one was researching such things, yet there it was right in front of you, the very people nay-saying it in Prime Time screaming for God (Or whoever) to save them. (This is where I stop myself from typing some huge wall-of-text that somehow involves psychedelic drugs)
The chaos that would ensue across general society would probably make it harder to coordinate any kind of plan against the invaders than if they just lied and said it was Terrorists or Anti-Green People (Trust me this will probably happen in the future) because everyone is too busy killing themselves, looting stores, distrusting government, doing the whole "BUT THERE HERE TO SAVE US" thing or blaming Freemasons.

Basically what I'm saying is, the 7 hour war would've probably ended up a 7 minute war if they hadn't done so.

This is before I even get onto killing the Scientists and HECU.

 

[spooky]

Haven't you watched enough Sci-Fi movies to know the Government always first approves the Military's solution of nuking everything and shooting whatever survives....then they ask what the Scientists think if that didn't work.

 

[ríomhaire]

Well first things first. It must be pointed out that the g-man was involved in this. He's mentioned in Adrian's diary and you can see him during bootcamp and also during the game with a group of soldiers. The g-man was probably pulling strings to act in his interest, not the government's/people of Earth/America. It's also worth noting that OP4 states this was a planned operation (Adrian's diary again).

In any case I got the impression that it wasn't so much "kill all the HECU Soldiers" for the Black Ops as it was "just make sure no one gets in your way when you plant the package."

Perhaps the government was going to move their contracts to Aperture after the incident?

 

[GeniusX]

The usual cover up routine. Scientists saw aliens, government thinks they can handle it, doesn't want public to panic but epically fails in the end.

 

[Story]

The usual cover up routine. Scientists saw aliens, government thinks they can handle it, doesn't want public to panic but epically fails in the end.

Simple as that.