Do you think the pilots on 9/11 (11/9 for you) wish they had had marshals on board that day?
You are assuming that had they been on board every one of those flights that they'd have been successful. You are trying to use your own belief in your gun culture system. Why not just say "do you think the pilots on 9/11 wish they had a proper intelligence service looking out for threats." Or... "do you think the pilots on 9/11 wish they had the new reinforced cockpit doors." Or... "do you think the pilots on 9/11 wish there had been passenger profiling." Or... "do you think the pilots on 9/11 wish they'd had competent security screeners."
The point about El Al is not that I praise their sky marshalls. It is the fact that if you are going to do security properly then do it properly and not in the current knee-jerk, ill thought through diktats from a government that appears to be almost paranoid. Whilst it is understandable why the US is so paranoid that in itself doesn't solve potential problems. It appears to someone who has seen the inside workings of proper security that Tom Ridge and his department are producing an awful lot of rhetoric in an apparent need to justify their existence.
I am not against sky marshalls per se. Just against the cosmetic use they will be considering the numbers involved. All the hoopla around the announcements are because of ill thought through decisions and without the real deterrent and use of proper profiling then there are gaping holes in the security system.