runner don't highjack the tread with your insanity. A fetus is not the same as a scared mother of three trying to buy a coffee and you know it.

Why didn't they shoot Monis earlier?

TV cameras caught pictures of Monis face-head looking through the window. There were snipers with rifles in buildings across Martin Place from the Coffee Shop.

Did too many Chiefs (ASIO, AFP, NSW Police) and too many politicians (Prime Minister and Premier) prevent or frustrate a timely kill shot?

Any rationalization that this was the act of a lone madman, and not ISIS terrorism, is missing the point.

Monis was an instrument of ISIS, the very type willing to do the bidding asked of its followers. He was won over to the cause and executed its requirements.

The fact that he was an unhinged individual is academic.

This was not a man on a ledge. I am sad that we had to learn the hard way that ISIS terrorism can't be talked down. Sniping Monis at the first opportunity, however early in the siege, and storming in, was always the only way to resolve matters. Our naivety is exposed by failing to do so, unless there were reasons of which the public is currently unaware.

Oh come on you guys, the psych wards of this country are filled with inmates who have religious paranoia! Even Martin Bryant ranted about his God during and after his massacre.
How many mad murderers claimed they did the murder because their God told them to?

Religion has a lot to answer for and has been the cause of much violence and death in our world for a long time. The religion of Islam is no worse or no better than others as far as violence goes, it is just that they appear to be more active at present.

Mad or bad? This guy from Sydney was apparently both.
What comes first, the religious fervor or the psych problem?
Certainly mixing the two can be very dangerous.

Yes plantagenet, that is the important point to come out of this,

You can't reason with a religious ratbag, particularly one who actually believes 72 virgins are waiting for them in heaven. This bloke expected to & planned to be dead when he walked into that coffee shop. We should have obliged him at the first opportunity.

The softely softely approach with the Muslims is garbage & has resulted in 2 dead. Who ever wanted to negotiate with the clown was following this "don't inflame the Muslims" bull dust our cops are saddled with from above.

Any sensible person in charge would have taken him out, with a head shot, at the first opportunity, & there were many opportunities.

The head must roll of the fool in charge of the operation, if only to reinforce their approach was totally wrong, & must never be repeated. If that deputy commissioner in charge of the operation gets away with this catastrophe, the next time, & there will be a next time, this will be a precedent, a career safe way of doing things. This must not happen.

Notice to TV advertisers. Most people I know watched a few minutes of the garbage of talking idiot heads the stations went overboard with, & turned off. Don't advertise with the fools, you are wasting your money.

Pete, you can't shoot someone through an 11mm toughened glass shopfront, the bullet could deflect and hit a hostage or more likely miss the target and cause him to start killing hostages.

The events in Martin place don't change anything and the response from the media, Twitter idiots and politicians has been disgraceful:
Here's a piece on Tessa Kum, the girl who started the whole counter-backlash travesty:
http://www.unz.com/isteve/the-media-heroine-of-the-australian-counterbacklash-has-some-issues/
Read her blog, if you think Harun The Bastard was unhinged look at the spokeswoman for #illridewithyou.
"I’m learning about hate because I am coming to hate you, white person. You have all the control, all the power, all the privilege, and there is nothing holding you accountable. I hate the double standards and hypocrisy you display, the rank dishonesty of your conduct. I hate that you can harm us, when we cannot harm you. I hate that you have actually impacted on careers, multiple and not even directly, with your hypocrisy. I hate that you’re so dominant in the publishing industry there’s very few venues I’d consider safe to even submit to now. I hate what you have done to PoC I don’t know. I hate what you have done to PoC I do know. I hate what you have done to me, and I was not involved."