Sorry, but that comparison is just plain asinine. There is simply no way anyone could have anticipated the 9/11 attack. The Pearl Harbor attack was carried out by a conspicuously built navy representing a nation that was carrying out a war of aggression in the Pacific. As our entire Pacific Fleet was operating out of Pearl Harbor, an argument can be made that more vigilance was required in the neighborhood. And there was even precedent for Pearl Harbor. The UK carried out the same attack against the Italian navy two years earlier. Meanwhile, nobody was complaining about airport security measures in this country, and placing anit-aircraft batteries at every national landmark (the only thing that would have thwarted the airborn terrorists) would have been comletely impractical. Again, go ahead and play armchair quarterback if it helps your ego somehow. But I dare you to present a single person who looked at cryptic reports that arabs were taking flight lessons and shouted "oh my God, they're going to crash into the World Trade Center!" Give the terrorists their due. The came up with a unique and diabolical plan, and carried it off. Now, once again, what, specifically, is Ms. Rice doing today that you would do differently?
There was the female FBI agent in Arizona who alerted the FBI headquaters.
There was the pilot instructor (retired Air Force pilot) who alerted the FBI in Minnesota, which in turn alerted FBI headquaters.
There was the CIA who was tailing one of the 9/11 hijackers until he entered the U.S.
Oh yes - there was a commerical jet that was hijacked a few years ago and landed at Marseille enroute to flying into the Eiffel Tower (French SWAT team overwhelmed the hijackers).