All that was necessary was to put impenetrable doors on cockpits.
I'm not even sure that would stop the next Richard Reid. Reids mistake was to light his shoe in front of passengers. Had he walked to the bathroom and lighted them there in privacy, it would have been a different story.
While I tend to agree that passesnger like myself will willingly put themselves in the front line and defend the aircraft we travel on, the rest of the passengers, and the innocent folks on the ground, it is reassuring that the opportunity for a knife weilding manic or bomber never makes it onto the plane in the first place....
I flew out of Phoenix on Tuesday... they had set up a second layer of security at skyharbor airport (it was an international flight) where they patted everyone down and searched their handluggage on the airbridge into the aircraft. They found a small knife on one of my fellow passengers. He had made it thru the regular security (Xrays, metal detecters etc) and it was only during the additional shoes off, coat and bag search that they found this knife on him. So, does increased security work? Yes, I believe in this case, the system did, and this example is applicable to the bojinka jihadis and shoebombers out there too.
I've read that Reid's mistake was omitting the blasting cap needed to detonate the explosive. The man was apparently a dim bulb, and his plan was flawed and untested, if indeed it was to blow up an aircraft.
However, now we all remove our shoes as we go through the security line, and feel the further alienation from our institutions and our countrymen -- we each are now terror suspects in our own home -- perhaps this was Reid's goal...
This alienation results in a few rash individuals blurting out stupid jokes, some avoiding the aggravating situation (sour grapes, or claim of special privilege), most complying with the new idiocies of the day, and ironically, some plotting a way to effectively retaliate against perceived oppression. It's a new road rage.