I agree with this SOOOOO much:

What troubles me about Fielding's statement is that all of our system's did not fail. One of them succeeded --- the ability of the citizens of this country to identify a threat and take action as individuals to elminate it. The ability that was demonstrated so dramatically --- and successfully --- by the passengers on Flight 93, the only hijacked plane where the terrorists failed in their mission to crash into a valuable target.

As I wrote one year after the 9/11 attacks, I don't believe that America began responding effectively to Al Qaeda when we invaded Afghanistan. I believe we began responding effectively the moment that the passengers of Flight 93, fed information via cellphone calls from the ground, recognized what the terrorists on their flight planned to do --- and acted to stop it.

...is the 9/11 commission, and our government in general, incapable of recognizing a defense against terrorism that merely consists of individual Americans willing to fight when it becomes necessary? That a defense that doesn't require a huge appropriation bill and a massive administrative army simply doesn't fit with the Washington mindset?

The Government ain't and will never be omniscient & all powerful - even back in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, or Mao-ist China.   I'm the first to agree that formal, military approaches are also required to deal with terrorism - it's just not the only solution to our defense.   I'm also the first to agree that there's a fine line between public vigilance and vigilanteeism - but I believe it's something we can trust the public with more rather than less.   On this and so many other issues, my biggest beef with statists of all stripes is the unspoken assumption that "problem" requires "government action".

The single biggest reason 9/11 won't happen again in exactly the same way is because I'm confident there are enough Todd Beamers amongst us who'll fight and self-sacrifice.  They've now been armed w/ the idea that hijackers will use planes as missiles rather than bargaining chips and will take the appropriate action (perversely - Al Qaeda has unintentionally poisoned the well for poor, old skool hijackers who still seek to use a plane to extract concessions - in a form of brinksmanship, by raising the cost of a hijacking to the attackee, Al Qaeda has also thus raised the cost to the attacker and thereby reduced the overall likelihood of future hijackings...).

But my biggest beef is that so many expect a standard of behavior from the government far in excess of even the best standard they place on themselves.   The real damage to the rest of us will be from the folks who irrationally and angrily expect and thus arm government to be omniscient and all powerful - this isn't an indictment against the Patriot act but rather charades like the 9/11 commission.