I Wanted to Fly to Denmark, Got Harassed in the Process

Back in January, a criminal conspiracy happened and my passport was stolen. At the time I was planning a trip to Denmark, and decided to call the Danish embassy, asking if it was possible to fly using only my Spanish license. I was told that no, that I needed a passport. I went to the US Consulate in Amsterdam, where I was made to take off my shoes. It wasn't fun because I lost everything and the only pair of shoes I had were embarrassingly scrutinized by the officials at the consulate.
 
They also made me remove the battery from my phone before entering, and then swiped it for explosives. The cell had to stay in a storage locker while I was inside of the consulate. One of the consular officers inquired about the pin on my lapel: a pomegranate for the city of Granada. Of course, Granada is also the Spanish word for grenade, so I had to work around saying a word that sounded like grenade. Once inside, I noticed that there were massive panels of thick, bomb-proof glass separating parts of the seating area. So, I answered some very personal questions and was on my way to getting a new shiny passport. In the end I didn't need it because I ended up driving South instead of North, and the Schengen treaty means that there is seldom passport control for drivers within the European Union.
 
I needed the passport just because it's a good document to have, and I knew I would need it on my flight to Denmark. However, I arrive at the airport and we're already pre-boarded. I'm standing behind my girlfriend and she hands in her passport, they give her our boarding passes. With the boarding pass I went through security, where I was asked to take off my belt and empty my pockets. My deodorant was liquid, but I forgot it was in my bag
 
And that was that, I was in Denmark in what felt like no time. Driving through Amsterdam is more hectic and headache-inducing. On my way back it was the same. The airport in Denmark had a 17 minute security queue, but they told you exactly how long it was going to take. And again I made it through security very pleasantly, making me wonder why it's so easy to board a flight in Europe, and such a nightmare in America. Denmark and Holland have their share of Al-Qaeda enemies as well, and their airports haven't descended into prisons. It remains a proven fact that intrusive security measures only infuriate the public. Flying from Amsterdam to Denmark and back reminded me of why I completely don't look forward to flying into the US.
 
A Dutch national interviewed by Abreu Report stated: "I flew to the US a few years back and we were in an hours-long immigration queue, when a new line opened up. A very angry man came and started screaming at certain people, including me, that we need to 'move, move, move, people!' in a very angry and militaristic tone. Honestly, I felt offended; I didn't sign up to join the army."
 
This weekend truly helped me realize how the United States has descended into overreaching paranoia. I don't know if the War on Terror is to be permanent, but if the US continues operating its airports like prison processing centers, and as long as foreigners are intimidated, so will our country continue its decline. It has recently been calculated that US cloud computing services stand to lose over 35 billion dollars over the next few years; simply because foreigners no longer trust cloud providers to be free from arm-wrangling by the NSA. The number of services that foreigners fear will only increase as more revelations are made and more terror threats are falsified in order to enrich the security-industrial complex.