There are two reasons why we “couldn’t shoot down” those airliners on 9-11.
1. Our eyes were pointed outward for enemies, not inward
2. Our Air Defense forces had been cut down to SEVEN bases around the entire country, from the “peace dividend” after the fall of the Soviet bloc
So, we weren’t looking in the right places and when they did finally figure it out, we didn’t have the proper assets to deal with it.
Cut the military again? We’ll get more of the same.
As far as I am concerned, this isn't about the amount of money, although if you knew of the massive waste in procurement you would know that we could EASILY cut hardware costs by a third and never miss it. I've never added up the bill for an adequate homeland and civil defense system, but it won't be cheap. I just think we've totally misallocated our priorities, and that has NOT been fixed since 9-11.