"Instead of agonizing, I'd like to see my fellow Americans reject their own suicidal pacifism and adjust to the reality that we are in a fight to the death with anarchists armed with a cosmic rational. We either decide we deserve to live more than they do or we have already lost. Why? Because they like to kill. They particularly like to kill non-combatants. To survive we will have to be more ruthless than they are. " Couldn't agree more. However, arming pilots would seem to be a simple step to restore both Americans' trust in the Federal government (Bush adminsitration) and the safety of the airlines. To my mind, this is a critical issue in many ways - safety and trust to name a couple.