EU bends over and takes it like a man...

[Catwoman]

Feelings for America, sympathetic or otherwise, have nothing to do with the proposal. Background info on people entering America may well be useful in sourcing criminal perpetrators of any nature. Now, whether it is fair for the US to request this without reciprocation is questionable. But 'it's not fair' screaming rants aside, do we actually need this information? A collection of credit cards and social security numbers may help mastermind the biggest fraud in history (just who is going to look after this enormously valuable database?) but I think the majority of Europeans would agree that documenting, brain scanning and finger printing every American entering their country would not only be a logistical nightmare but largely futile. Where there is a system there is a mole, no matter its sophisticate.

There are two real issues here which are getting confused: security, which is a real issue for both Americans and Europeans; and blame - who's fault it is that security issues have arisen. Some would argue that the US has brought it on itself (I wont get into this one on a Friday afternoon), but no matter the originator, it is still an issue, and personally, I couldn't care less who accesses my details (within the usual data protection parameters). I have nothing to hide. But I do think the favour should be reciprocated, and there should be a lot more sharing going on.