Janet Napolitano, speaking to a gathering of governors, stated that her first year of on-the-job-training leads her to conclude that her earlier focus on foreign-spawned terrorism was misplaced. According to an AP article, the Secretary of Homeland Security opined that her department must "drill down" to determine why young, home-grown Americans are inclined to adopt the violent measures heretofore exhibited by international terrorists.

Ah, yes. We must figure out what we are doing in this country that would drive our young adults to lash out in rebellion. If only we understood them! If we did, maybe we could "explain things" to them, or "communicate more effectively." Had the proper interpretive procedures been in place, we might have prevented the massacres at Ft. Hood and the University of Alabama-Huntsville. If we only understood how our society failed! The policy of the prior administration (both foreign and domestic) must be blameworthy.

If only we could reach out earlier to the "tenure victim" who would first slay her only sibling and later her professional associates....If we could only anticipate the unendurable pain of a radical Muslim in our armed forces as we pushed him beyond the reasonable bounds of service to his country.

If we had properly "drilled down" into the motives and character of these two domestic terrorists, if we had "drilled down" into the blatant clues slapping us in the face, then, perhaps, we might have salvaged these two noble people.

And, meanwhile, perhaps, the international terrorists--the scions of our domestic ills-will discard their ballistic diapers for environment-friendly nappies.