"Just can't let go of that 'compassion/caring' thing, eh? :^)"
Actually that was sarcasm
My fear is that while pursuing our 'nice guy' lifestyles, we've appeared weak to our adversaries who will jump on it as an opportunity to take advantage. Bin Laden is like Rodney King, and too many (liberals) have been conditioned to simply giving him a ticket(prosecuting) and sending him on his way, rather than yanking him out of the car and doing the pinata-baton dance on his head (taking it to his country so all of his friends and relatives can enjoy a retaliatory strike).
I share your concern about any 'Joe' armed and untrained on a plane, but then that should worry the terriorist as well. Of course, these guys don't care about the outcome, so whatever happens is going to be messy and some innocents may be involved. With suicidal terriorists, about the best you can hope for is the least loss of life when taking them down.