[PvK]

The "war on terrorism" is an excuse to create a security industry, further dominate the US public, and other political reasons.

Attacks like plane hijacking can be countered just as effectively without the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, color-coded alert levels, or goofball airport security.

Anti-aircraft measures is another possible idea that could help against a 9/11 attack, but won't help the planes much. Cockpits could be made more secure though. More intelligent and less obtrusive airport security could also help (have smart well-trained people rather than rent-a-guards with silly searches that include grandmothers and everyone's shoes and liquids...).

Wiping out entire foreign towns because a "terrorist" came from it would just make the USA into a far more blatantly detestable empire than it already is, even more than suicide bombers who target civilians, and would be less effective at making the nation safe, because then more civilized sane people would want to destroy the USA too.

Guns on airliners doesn't seem like a great idea, since using them would tend to damage the plane, and make it easier for anyone to cause chaos in the air. Maybe give all passengers access to a spray gun that shoots immobilizing security foam, instead.

PvK