Yes, I was in the Navy for over 20 years. In that time, among a number of other roles, I served in the first Gulf War, where among other things I lead armed boarding parties involved in the interdiction of shipping. That as close as I ever came to doing anything remotely close to this type of thing and it isn't that close.
But I was also involved in search and rescue at other times, and I watched armchair amateurs like you criticise the work of experts who put their lives on the line to save others and caused good men significant grief that they should not have had to experience. I believe you wait until the evidence is in, before you attack people who risk their lives for others.
If so many people were wounded and died, you don’t think that is an indication that this was not as successful as it could have been.
I think that's a flawed assumption. There were seventeen hostages and fifteen came out alive. They could have easily lost a hell of a lot more - especially if they'd gone in before they needed to.
You talk about the SAS - remember the Iranian Embassy Siege? I'm sure you do. Two dead hostages, with two wounded, in that one as well. It happens, even if you do everything right, you can't always save everybody.
Do you really think that if the police had allowed the Army Special Operations people in, that everyone might be alive?
My information is that they did - that the takedown team was from TAG East. But that's not, as far as I can see, being either confirmed or denied at this point, and while my source is good, I won't say it's perfect without evidence. If it is, that might change my position. I wait for the facts. That's the type of thing that will come out during the actual investigations.
Nobody is stopping you expressing an opinion as far as I can see. But I'm going to express mine as well - and that opinion is that you are going too far in your judgements and criticisms given the limited information you have available to you.
Actually you did imply it, but it turns out you were in the navy, read your own posts, although they are so long winded.
Seriously, you want to compare this lone gunman with a shot gun in a cafe, to the Iranian Embassy Siege?
You really are not knowledgeable about this kind of operation, but anyone should be able to know the difference between the challenges involved in this cafe, versus terrorists holding the Iranian Embassy Siege, even an armchair amateur like you should know better than to compare those two.
“A group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London. The gunmen took 26 people hostage—mostly embassy staff, but several visitors and a police officer, who had been guarding the embassy, were also held. The hostage-takers, members of an Iranian Arab group”
“Firearms (including pistols and submachine guns), ammunition and hand grenades. The weapons, predominantly Soviet-made, are believed to have been smuggled into the United Kingdom in a diplomatic bag belonging to Iraq.”
By the sixth day of the siege the gunmen had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in meeting their demands. That evening, they killed one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy. As a result, the British government ordered the Special Air Service (SAS), a special forces regiment of the British Army, to conduct an assault to rescue the remaining hostages. Shortly afterwards, soldiers abseiled from the roof of the building and forced entry through the windows. During the 17-minute raid, the SAS rescued all but one of the remaining hostages, and killed five of the six terrorists.”
“Meanwhile, further teams entered the embassy through the back door and cleared the ground floor and cellar.[54] The SAS then began evacuating hostages, manhandling them down the stairs towards the back door of the embassy. Two of the terrorists were hiding amongst the hostages—one of them produced a hand grenade when he was identified. An SAS soldier, who was unable to shoot for fear of hitting a hostage or another soldier, pushed the grenade-wielding terrorist to the bottom of the stairs, where two other soldiers shot him dead.[51][55]
The raid lasted 17 minutes and involved 30–35 soldiers. The terrorists killed one hostage and seriously wounded two others during the raid while the SAS killed all but one of the terrorists.”