My wife and I recently returned from our honeymoon. We traveled to Ireland for a week and half and had an amazing time. Our return trip to the US was a frustrating and unnecessary slog through layers of security, that only applied to travelers heading to the states.
On our trip to Ireland we went through the standard TSA experience: taking off the shoes, full body scanner, enhanced pat down because of a weird reading on the scanner. We were prepared for this and added sufficient extra time. When we landed in Dublin we went through passport control and answered a few questions. Then we were on our way. All of this was normal and we had experienced on a previous trip overseas to Germany (which was likewise quick and efficient).
On our last trip overseas we went through security at the airport (in Germany). It consisted of an x-ray for the bags and a metal detector for us (no removing shoes). We filled out our customs declaration on the plane and went through passport control after we landed in the US. It was quick and easy, a mirror of our trip to Europe.
On this trip, something has clearly changed. We went through security in Ireland, complete with the limits on liquids, the x-ray scanner for our carry-on, and a metal detector for us. We did some shopping at duty free, expecting to make it to our gate quickly since we were already through security. How wrong we were. We discovered that Ireland has a separate wing for flights to the US because of security demands from the US. Prior to entering that wing we had to fill out our customs declaration, which we provided to a security agent along with passport and boarding pass. Then we had to go through a second round of security with more x-ray scanners and the full body scan. This was essentially the TSA security routine after we had already gone through airport security once. After this we had go through an automated passport control. The machine gave us a print out, which we then had to take to a customs official who asked us the same customs questions (for the third time), showed us a picture of our checked bags, and checked our passports again.
Have we really become so terrified of the rest of the world, and our own international travelers, that we have to treat every traveler to the US as a security threat requiring heightened security? This system is unbelievably redundant and unnecessary, yet it appears to be unquestioned and not even newsworthy that we apparently don't trust another advanced countries to ensure proper security at the airport.