I am German. I love my country. There are few nations on earth I would rather live in.

		Benjamin Schulz, a native of Dortmund, Germany, is on a six-month academic internship at the Post-Gazette (bschulz@post-gazette.com).

One of them is America -- or at least it used to be.

Six years ago, I was a foreign exchange student in Pittsburgh for almost 11 months. If you had asked me back then if I would have liked to stay in the United States for good, I probably would have said yes.

Now, I'm not so sure.

It's not because I don't enjoy being in this country any more. I love being here. What makes me hesitant is that America gives me the feeling that it doesn't want me here as much as it used to.

In preparing for this visit, I had to get a visa. A simple thing, one would think. I had entered the United States on a visa before as an exchange student, and getting that one was easy.

This time, it was different. They took my fingerprints. They wanted to know which countries I had entered over the past 10 years. They requested very personal information about my family and financial resources.

It was easier to get a German driver's license, passport and ID -- and Germany has a reputation as one of the most bureaucratic countries on the planet -- than to get this visa.

I understand that security is important. Of course the authorities have to protect this country. The world has changed and some of those changes demand adjustments.

But that doesn't justify making friendly visitors like me feel as though we are criminals when we want to travel legally to the United States.

I'm not going to argue whether some of the new security measures actually will make America safer, even though some are questionable.

Just one example: Within 10 days of my arrival in the United States, I had to register on a government Web site and provide my home and work addresses. I'm expected to update them if they change. This is supposed to make it easier to meet my visa requirements, but it mainly allows authorities to keep track of where I am and what I'm doing.

Will this make the country more secure? Anyone failing to register would have 10 days to do damage, and even after that could provide false information or fail to update it.

But the main issue is not that such measures will do little to enhance U.S. security, it is that they will do much to damage the country's reputation throughout the world -- and might even provide the basis from which new enemies arise.

I believe the Bush government is not fully aware of this problem, and that it accounts for a major part of the president's unpopularity in Germany and other countries.

Before 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, America had the aura of being invincible. Germans would often refer to the United States as Germany's big brother.

Few Germans still hold this view.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying the relationship with my American friends has suffered and that we're not as close as we used to be. The strong bond I have with them is the main reason I will always come back to America -- no matter what obstacles I might face. Good friendships so far have remained untouched by big politics.

But it feels as though the climate of society has changed from trust and belief in the good in people to a sense of distrust and in some cases hostility. Several times I've heard Americans say that no foreigners should be let into the country anymore -- and they don't specify whether this includes tourists as well as foreigners who might like to settle here.

Many Americans might not think they have changed much or at all. But the change I'm talking about is subtle, slow, maybe even subconscious. It might be hard to recognize if you've been a part of it.

It seems to me that the terrorists have been successful in targeting what even the most advanced security measures cannot protect: The open-mindedness of American society, one of the most precious and characteristic traits of this nation.

Every person coming to America sees a sign that says, "Welcome to the United States." But when the first thing that happens to you after reading this sign is having your fingerprints and picture taken yet again, "welcome" seems like an empty phrase.