EDITORIAL: What's radicalizing some Americans?

The man charged with driving a firebomb into Times Square was arrested 53 hours and 20 minutes after he parked the explosives-laden vehicle in midtown. That's top-notch police work, for which kudos are richly deserved.

Armed with a treasure trove of evidence from the SUV, which luckily didn't ignite, the New York Police Department, FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol all played key roles in the fast-paced probe, evidence that they've gotten much better since 9/11 at coordinating investigative capabilities. We're all safer for that smoother cooperation.

But one haunting element of Saturday's close call is that Pakistan-born Faisal Shahzad is a naturalized U.S. citizen. That raises troubling questions about the evolving nature and face of terrorism. In the past two years, more than a dozen citizens or legal residents have been accused of supporting, attempting or carrying out attacks on U.S. soil - people like the American-born Army psychiatrist who killed 13 at Fort Hood, and the Afghanistan-born, permanent U.S. resident convicted of plotting to bomb New York City subways.

Something is radicalizing people who seemed to have embraced life in this country. While we must continue to fight terrorism with the military and the police, we also need to defuse this profound malice. So, it's crucial that we do some searching about how we, as individuals and nations, can get beyond this deadly hatred. hN