9/11 has made everyone terminally stupid, particularly employees of the United States Government and TSA. The terrorists won, regardless of what happens in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, et. al.
This minor story is the infinitessimal tip of the icebeg.
The price paid has been infinitely larger than what you suggest. Trillons of $s, and hundreds of thousands of hours of inconvenience for citizens and legal residents as the price of worshiping at the altar of Political Correctness and "muticulturalism."
As if those were the ends in themselves.
The national leadership has a lot of 'splaining to do to the uncompromising judge of history.
The obvious solution was easy to see, and easier to implement. The enemy, islam, was obvious from day one. Actually, for a decade or two before day one.