20/20 HINDSIGHT: Rand Simberg thinks that people — I guess that would include me have been too hard on the FBI, etc.

UPDATE: Actually, on rereading this, I don’t think he really disagrees with what I’ve been saying:

Was this even avoidable? In theory, yes. I wasn’t really surprised when it happened. When the first plane hit, I was wondering if it was deliberate, and if so, how it could be pulled off. I ran through the possibilities in my mind, and the only one that made sense was a hijacking. When the second plane hit, the thought jelled–clearly that was what happened. Was it unthinkable? Not to me. The WTC had already been targeted by these nutballs. We had already seen a plane taken down by a suicidal pilot (in the Egypt Air case). So why not?

But in practice, it probably couldn’t have been prevented, even had the dots been properly connected. We were simply culturally unable to deal with it until we had the bucket of ice water splashed in our collective face last September.

He’s absolutely right about this last. Even if we’d known, what could we have done? Started questioning suspicious Arab-looking young men at airports? Hell, we’re not even doing that now. Get passengers to resist? That would have been a good idea (it was probably always a good idea) but would people have changed their behavior from sheeplike to lionlike without the examples of the WTC and Pentagon on fire — and of Flight 93? Doubtful. Put sky marshals on the planes? Again, we’ve barely started to do that now. Invaded Afghanistan? Who would have gone for that?