For all of the partisan Democratic sound and fury over National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice`s testimony before the 9/11 commission, one is struck by her reference to the "systemic failures" at the FBI, CIA and other agencies and that previous administrations should have dealt with them: Those structures and those changes should have been a long time ago so that the country was in fact hardened against the kind of threat that we faced on September 11... Sometimes, until there is a catastrophic event that forces people to think differently, that forces people to overcome old customs and old culture...