No one has answered the question: What are the alternatives?
For starters, how about increased security and delay or cancel a flight if necessary? Air marshals may save the life of the rest of the passengers. As a last resort, arming the crew?
It has become a mad world indeed. These are the tough questions we have to answer when dealing with terrorism. THAT is why we in the US are so committed to this as a war, an actual war, which will stretch for the next 40 year or at least two generations. I will not sit quietly and let a madman in a cave on the other side of the planet dictate what I can or can not do. Like it or not, nature infers a heirarchy and this dog is on top and will not reliquish its position withiout one hell of a fight. Lead, follow or get out of the way. England has chosen to assist in what they realize is a threat directed at their way of life (whether all of the citizenry realizes it).
Back to those passengers on a plane which is highjacked: They are dead men (and women) sitting. Do you suppose the passengers will be released prior to impact? You are dreaming. Their lives are valueless as demonstrated by those who died while relaying events via cell phone on 9-11.
Recent intel indicates that the efforts by countries to take on Al Khaeda is having a dramatic effect. Two thirds of the leadership is arrested or dead and they are frustrated that they are loosing in Iraq. The world is actually safer now, in my estimation, than it was two years ago. And it is thanks to those who chose to take the hard road. We could simply hold , say Saudi Arabia hostage ourselves and put them on notice, "Allow more of your citizens to contribute to terror across the world and we will take out one of your cities, perhaps one by one until you get the message."
THAT is terrorism. And to the coallition's stregth. Despite the terror tactics used on our troops, the coallition chooses to fight this war along western conventions. War is hell. As one of our generals said a hundred years ago, "War is hell. One side can only inflict the maximum amount of pain on the other that they may change their will to fight." It is this will power that maintains the war. The coallition would pack for home in a month if it were not for this will. Aquiescence wil l only embolden them.
It is a mad world indeed. It is up to us to determine whether we want to allow this madness within our borders. A totally free society is impossible because TOTAL freedom breeds chaos. During a war, the populus must live under less than routine measures. In my mind it is a small price to pay given the alternative.
While we are more and more a "world society," it remains the choice of the citizens within each country to act in their own defense. I pray the rest of the world never experiences the attacks brought upon those countries that have seen the devastaion brought on my fanatical terrorists, as we in this country have.
PT