Where are the fighter planes?

When I brought up the idea to go see United 93 to my friends, I was surprised by their reaction: nobody wanted watch this movie. It was neither wariness toward possible sensationalism such movies might succumb to (and United 93 is no such movie) nor wanted to avoid recollection of the traumatizing memories of 9/11. Apart from the fact that nobody likes witnessing bad things happen to innocent people, I think that most people simply want to move on from the barrage of 9/11-related media coverage and references. As well intentioned my friends are, they missed the point the movie raises -- it's not about WHY 9/11 happened, but HOW it was (mis)handled by all the infrastructure that we don't normally give much thought to, but take for granted that they're functioning like clockwork behind the scenes. On September 11, as we watched the events unfold on CNN or followed along with the news coverage on websites or radio, there were men and women in various agencies -- ground control, FAA, military, and the government to name a few -- that should have been teaming up to react swiftly and effectively to the situation. The truth, however, as told by United 93, is that their reaction was a tragic series of blunders, demonstration of impotence and bewildering disfunctionality; and even as a small group of passengers on United 93 went through a series of reactions as 9/11 unfolded -- witnessing the terrorists murder their fellow passengers and pilots to take over the plane, realizing that they're sitting helpess in a kamikazi rocket destined to explode into a target, then taking the matters into their own hands -- these government agencies kept squaking like ducks in a box, but their actions were just as ineffective and at times, tragically and infuriatingly comical.

Here's how the agencies handled it:

Ground Control: "Holy shit, I think these planes are hijacked!"
FAA: "I heard 'hijacked,' which planes, which planes?"
Military: "Planes hijacked. Must send fighter planes. Must get clearance."
FAA: "Which plains, which plains?"
Ground Control: "Plane A disappeared! How can this happen?"
FAA: "Where did the planes go? Whoa, there's a big smoke in the North Tower."
Military: "Planes hijacked. Must send fighter planes. Must get clearance."
Ground Control: "Plane B disappeared! How can this happen?"
FAA: " Where did the planes go? Whoa, more smoke from the World Trade Center."
Military: "Planes hijacked. Must send fighter planes. Must get clearance."
Ground Control: "Oh, United 93 is definitely hijacked."
FAA: (light bulb moment) "Let's make a list of all possible hijacked planes!"
Military: "Planes hijacked. Must send fighter planes. Must get clearance."

(United 93 crashes)

At one point, I flung the empty bottle of soda across the rows of empty seats ahead of me (it was Wednesday night on a dinky movie theater in Toronto), letting out a frustrated "F*CK!"; I could no longer contain the rage toward the utter incompetence I was witnessing. As far as the whereabouts of the fighter planes that the military was trying to dispatch to prevent further attacks... well, I won't spoil the experience of hurling something at the screen for you. It's a real doozy.

It's interesting to come back to the point of why people do not want to see this movie... especially so, sitting at an airport terminal typing away this entry. As my colleagues point out, is it because we simply do not want to see a movie about airliner crash? (We all commute to client cities every week.) Perhaps 9/11-fatigue? Or is it because most of us simply do not care why/how things happened as long as it didn't happen to them? Sadly, the cynic in me looks toward that trailing possiblity to be most likely answer.