The next time you get fed up with the way the politicians fumble or why you can never seem to get a “real live person” on your telephone, I beg you to remember a number – 53:20. That’s the hours and minutes it took the greatest nation in the world to defy seemingly insurmountable odds and catch a scoundrel we are now told is named Faisal Shahzad.

That’s right, it took just barely over two days for “our protectors” to collar a bum who sought to terrify us and hurt our country. From the time the horribly-misguided wretch struck a match to set fire to carefully-altered used vehicle, one filled with enough explosives to kill a lot of Americans, to the moment our police officials jerked the slimy bum off an outbound international flight was only fifty-three hours and twenty minutes.

I don’t know about you but that’s why I pay taxes. That’s why I put my hand over my heart when they play the National Anthem. That’s why I cry when a flag-draped casket is shown on TV. And this may sound silly to the cynics but I, for one, was flooded with the same pride that I felt when I saw fire engines screaming into south Manhattan on a day we best remember by another number, 9-11.

I want you to pause for a minute and think about what just happened. This carefully-trained vulture of a human, promised goodness-knows-what by evil people who want to kill your spouse and your children, stealthily drove a used SUV he bought on the Internet – with a prepaid cell-phone – into a very crowded Times Square on Saturday.

Between the time “Mr. Lout” got there, he filled it with everyday materials like propane tanks, fire crackers, gasoline-and-fertilizer, and anything else he could find so that when it exploded, the shards of metal would do perilous damage. He also altered the serial numbers, tinted the windows as darkly as he could, and stuck on a stolen license plate. Then he set the car on fire before disappearing into the crowd.

Now a columnist on the AOL website dug up an old joke yesterday about New Yorkers. The tale goes is that the reason they can never performer Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” in Central Park because if they tried, the entire audience would suddenly disperse during the death scene, fleeing lest they might be thought to be somehow “involved.”

But last Saturday night that was not the case. At least three vendors in the crowded area quickly told the cops. The fire was extinguished before anything bad could happen. The bomb was disarmed almost the minute it was found and then commenced the greatest, and fastest, manhunt this country has ever launched. Think about it! To hunt down and capture a guy who took such guarded precautions to believe he was anonymous is absolutely a thrilling thing.

As most of us slept on Saturday night, a criminal forensics team was literally dismantling the vehicle (forget what kind it was because the maker had nothing to do with it) and soon found the true, 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).

In the meanwhile, the altered one that had been placed inside the windshield was traced to a rental truck that had been leased weeks before and then reported stolen by a bum claiming to be Mohammed A. Salamed. But some of Mohammed’s confederates who were in on the terror attempt had apparently skipped the country, not telling the scapegoat but instead leaving the dummy high-and-dry, so the Feds caught poor pawn as he was trying to get his $400 deposit back so he could buy something to eat.

Meanwhile, the army of noble sleuths tracked the real vehicle in question to a woman who accepted cash for her truck but had wondered why the buyer didn’t want a receipt. She had his phone number, though, and it was learned the prepaid cell-phone had also been used to call somebody in Pakistan. “Hello? Is this the Shahzad residence?”

Bingo! Once they had a name, they tracked down his most-recent residence in Connecticut and paid an unannounced visit. The house was vacant but, what’s this, the extra keys to the SUV? Oh look, there is some leftover fertilizer in the garage. Ah, and some firecrackers exactly like the ones in the vehicle. It’s a wonder the master criminal remembered to wind up the alarm clocks that were part of the bomb!

With news outlets by then breathlessly reporting that the police were hot on the trail of a Pakistani suspect from Connecticut, the somewhat alarmed Shahzah used his prepaid cell phone en route to Kennedy International, booking a flight to Dubai and telling them he’d pay cash for the ticket.

Now, you’re going to read where Emirates Air Lines didn’t check the current “no fly” list and how Shahzad slipped past the Homeland Security lines but, bear in mind, it was a customs official, checking the manifest 30 minutes prior to takeoff, who pinpointed Shahzad’s exact location for a rushing team of FBI and state police.

Some media skeptics, as they love to do, are saying the whole 53:20 chase was “lucky” while others are crediting police “who were just doing their jobs.” But if you fall for that, you haven’t paid attention to the true reason Faisal Shahzad got caught. It is called “America.”

This nation will never tolerate terrorism or thugs or invaders. We will search down those who threaten our freedom and make sure they never hurt or threaten harm to anyone, anywhere, ever again.

That is why, in just fifty-one hours and 20 minutes last weekend, my deepest beliefs were fortified and I am once again assured ours is the greatest nation – under God – that has ever been in the world.