If this is how America treats its friends...

[almostwitty]

So the UK stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the US against pretty much everyone else in launching a doomed war against Iraq, which sends Tony Blair out of office, potentially Gordon Brown with him and ushering in the Tories at the next general election ... and what does the UK get in return?

All European visitors to be forced to register with the Department of Homeland Security 72 hours before entering the United States on a visa-waiver system.

Erm... surely, the whole POINT of a visa-waiver system is so that you don't have to do bureaucratic things like registration, retinal scans, fingerprint IDs and all that?

It's the equivalent of asking your neighbour to help you burgular-proof your place, then thanking him and demanding that your neighbour registers with you three days before the next time he wants to visit.

I'd like to think Obama would change this when he gets into office. But he won't.

Ever wonder why we get the feeling that Bush/NASA's plans for a Mars colony aren't about exploration, but about setting up Planet America? ;)

Comments

[lmurph524.livejournal.com]

I personally don't think Obama is the best candidate. Actually, the UK military should hope that McCain gets elected. Obama would try to pull out the troops in mass and that just won't work. McCain at least recognizes that a massive pull out wouldn't be in the best interest of the Iraqis or for the US. Besides, Congress has to approve everything. All the campaigning is just retoric anyway. Without Congress's support, the President really can't do too much.
As for the Dept. of Homeland Security, I'd rather they erred on the side of caution instead of seeing another attack like the one on 9/11. If the situation were reversed, wouldn't you?

[almostwitty]

All that extra data isn't going to help stop a terrorist one iota.

If the intelligence services are tracking individuals, then they'll already know they're planning to fly to the US as soon as they book the ticket - because the name comes up on the ticket. And sure, they could change the name on the ticket - but then they could easily change the name they use when they sign up at the Homeland Security website.

Also, bear in mind that none of the 9/11 attackers had any prior history of anything, nor were they being tracked by anyone. So if their names had come up on this mythical databases, tehre'd be no red flag.

[almostwitty]

Either way, doing this is the equivalent of asking your neighbour to help you put up an extension, then you escort him out of your premises with a shotgun and you tell him to let you know three days before he want to visit.

[nikki-z.livejournal.com]

second metapher with the neighbour here. d'uh.
in france and germany, the Amis are 'our friends'.
And 'friends can disagree' and blabla.
And friends can fuck you over. Of course.

There is no 'protection' of this kind of terrorism that will efficiently help. The only way is to somehow cease to be a hated target. No idea what has to be done there *shrugs*..?! In case of doubt, you can always destroy another supporter country, say Syria or Iran next now ?

[sioneva.livejournal.com]

I would just like to point out that the UK suffered through MANY terrorist attacks, courtesy of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and while they may not have been to the same scale as the WTC attacks, the UK was far more reasonable and measured in its response (with little of the US's injured ego kneejerk reaction) than the US has been.

As a holder of both UK and US citizenship, I have to say that despite its outrageous cost, UK security precautions with regard to immigration are FAR more sensible than the US's, which treats EVERYONE entering the country as a terrorist. As anhedoniac points out below, the suicide bombers of September 11 were here legally on student visas with no red flags that would have brought them up even WITH these new regulations. Oh, and our own homegrown bomber, McVeigh, certainly wouldn't have come up on the system either...the new law will essentially have no effect at all except to decrease tourism and further reinforce the notion that the US is a massively reactionary, insulationist country that thinks everyone who isn't American is inherently dangerous (despite the majority of us who ARE American originally coming from somewhere else in the first place).