I.D. Cards

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Europeans, who have been carrying national identification cards for years, don't understand all the fuss in countries where I.D. cards are being considered for the first time. Americans, in particular, see the I.D. card as a powerful tool which would threaten their civil liberties. They see the card as the equivalent to an internal passport which the government could use to monitor everything about a person's life, which is too big a price to pay to increase national security. The closest thing to a national I.D. in the United States is the driver's license, which you are not obligated to get or to carry on your person except when you are driving. And Americans are totally against having their fingerprints taken. In the US you can only be required to submit your fingerprints if you are arrested and suspected of a crime; these being destroyed if there is no conviction.

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