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Brilliant Pebbles would certainly do what it is envisioned to do. But: it wouldn't work against cruise missles. It wouldn't work against container ship delivery. And it would be difficult to be absolutely sure that some programming glitch or cracker inserted virus did not cause the downing of a shuttle launch.

As for cruise missiles and terror-hijacked 757s we need what is commonly referred to (and America has not had since even BEFORE Jimmy Carter) as an AIR DEFENSE. In addition to supersonic interceptor jet squadrons... There used to be Nike-Zeus air defense interceptor missiles scattered all over the country for a realistic chance of sweeping up attacking bombers...or even isolated onesy-twosey attacks. Now we have only a few air bases of F-15 and F-16s, in inconvenient locations, and unable to sustain the stressful operational tempo of constant aerial patrol over the major metropolises. When 9-11-02 rolled around, Rumsfeld made sure that the Pentagon had a point-missile air defense on site and ready. Amazing it took that long after 9-11-01 to reverse the damage of decades of Mutual Assured Destruction mindlessness preaching the futilities of any defensive posture in anything. We should be deploying PAC-3 interceptor batteries to each of the major metropolises. It would cost billions, and probably a couple hundred millions annually (maybe more) to man and maintain...but it is cheaper than the alternatives...some of the negative consequences you allude to.

We are already scanning for radioactivity in the container ships. And maybe doing chemical sniffing too. This was long overdue. I hope they are effective. That ship that was sent 6 miles out to sea while they conducted a more thorough search had an incredibly suspicious set of port-of-calls. And what was just hair-raising was the customs people's asserting they could hear strange noises from below-decks in the hold... so what the heck was going on if they subsequently give the thing a clean bill of health? They suspected that some clay tiles may have tripped the geiger counters...but that doesn't explain the strange noises in the containers in the hold... This might be a case where they did find something, but decided to put a lid on it.