Allow me a citation to demonstrate the inefficacy of that strategy: Libya.
As a result, thousands of MANPADS have been distributed worldwide by now, a whirlwind we have yet to reap, perhaps in the NextGen, so to speak.
No, that wasn't a joke or typo. The NextGen Air Traffic Control System being implemented in CONUS mandates that commercial aircraft line up in narrow corridors during entry to airports. Fly low and slow like ducks in a row!
See tag line.
Actually, my understanding is NextGen means aircraft, too include an entire aspect devoted to UAVs, means there would be no established corridors, that aircraft/air platforms would fly the most efficient profiles and that includes vectoring on-to short finals from all directions. . .as opposed to what you are describing that happens today and has been for decades (”aircraft line up in narrow corridors during entry to airports. Fly low and slow like ducks in a row!”).
Nonetheless, Libya is indeed a valid point. However, the way I see it is MANPADs and nukes are totally different; meaning lots of conventional arms might start flowing from Iran (like the former USSR or,as you said, Libya), but those are not here (southern border openness notwithstanding). Most illegal unrestricted conventional arms make their way to the mid-east and Africa, with a substantial portion headed to the Balkans. China and Russia and such buy limited amounts for exploitation purposes.
When it comes to nukes, not much by way of customer base for nukes that are not completed. . .yet.
Of course, that leaves the threat of a dirty bomb and one hopes out classified detection systems, both terrestrial and from space, would place us in a position for interception well before one shows up in New York Norfolk, Long Beach, where ever. . .
Appreciate the civil exchange, by the way. Refreshing. (You sound an awful lot like a friend of mine from Edmond, OK. Is that you?