The government has made a great show of protecting the American public since the 9/11 terror attacks, but whether the more tedious process of airport security checks now in place is more show than substance is debatable. True, no other al-Qaida atrocity has occurred in the American homeland since, but is that a triumph of deterrence or a symptom of our enemies' weakness?

Hard to say. All that average Americans can do, as they have their belongings and personal effects searched by squads of security personnel who do not always inspire confidence, is submit to the inevitable. This is life in these United States, post-9/11.

Unfortunately, more irritating submission to the inevitable is in the works, and not just at airports. Under new rules that can be traced to intelligence legislation passed by Congress last year, American travelers are going to have to have passports to re-enter the United States after visiting neighboring countries such as Canada, Mexico, Panama and Bermuda. The requirement will be phased in and be in place by Jan. 1, 2008.

Up until now, a driver's license, perhaps backed by another document such as a birth certificate, has been proof enough of nationality. That won't do in the age of paranoia and overreaction. The borders have to be tightened up in case terrorists sneak in.

Granted, there's some logic to the argument but it's still a depressing development -- and one that invites some cynicism. After all, it is reasonable to presume that enterprising terrorists will simply move here before passports are demanded for re-entry by land, air or sea. They can also come on forged foreign passports or real ones, for that matter. This move may or may not deter terrorists, but it will certainly mean more inconvenience for law-abiding Americans with no guarantee that it will be worth the effort.

The many Pittsburghers who take the five-hour drive up to Toronto to catch a show will now have to apply for a passport if they don't have one, and they may very well encounter the border delays that inevitably come with increased security.

Actually, it's not clear why Canada, a respectable, efficient nation and a good neighbor, can't be trusted to keep terrorists out of its own country. And why the insistence on passports for U.S. travelers coming from Mexico, when that border is porous?

The underlying spirit of the North American Free Trade Agreement was to make North America more of a whole, a place less fenced off by borders. Not only does this requirement fly in the face of that, but it is also at odds with what is happening elsewhere.

A traveler who is admitted to France can go on to Germany, a fellow European Union member, without the formality of showing a passport. France and Germany are not immune as targets in the war on terror, but they trust their safety to something more than a fortress mentality.

Get ready to hand over your passports, because this is America. We can only hope that making a great show of security isn't the main point of the exercise.