For someone who has flown "nearly 5 million real miles during over 45 years" I would think you would have a better sense that sometimes a situation that seems like its one thing, may not in fact be reality. Did you speak with AA Dispatch/Ops/Mx to know that they didn't have advance planning in place? Or is it just the appearance that because the operation was a cluster that there was advance planning? I'd venture to say, AA like any other airline, made an operational assessment as to what they could operate and sometimes the best laid plans fall apart. Conversely if AA had suspended all ORD ops, you would be complaining that AA was overly prudent and thus adversely impacted operations for something that didn't actually occur as predicted.

ORD doesn't operate in a vacuum with no other hub, or other city in the system, not impacted by operational challenges because of weather. Planes and crews have to be staged to operate future flights so things can change in order to ensure recovery of operations. So while I am somewhat sympathetic to delays and the frustration of sitting around with information seemingly changing by the minute, I also understand that when there is one kink in the system it can ultimately have a snowball effect.