The idea that everyone is doing it and others would do it if they could except we’re better so they hate us for our capabilities is a race to the bottom argument. It could be used to excuse just about any intrusive and objectionable conduct, such as flying surveillance drones in any country’s airspace or building secret prisons for interrogating prisoners in any country’s land. Now, privately, the world’s most powerful countries and their leaders may have tolerated the US surveillance apparatus being turned on them. However, that operations have been taking place and were either expanded or discontinued has become public knowledge. This means the world faces a choice, one which Snowden thought citizens around the globe should be able make because governments engage in spy games without their consent. Do we want a future where each and every country builds up surveillance apparatuses and turns them on one another to advance their agendas? Or do we want to discourage this and argue countries should not act with such naked self-interest and instead be more open and cooperative with another? It seems like a debate worth having. However, former intelligence agency employees like CIA veteran Paul Pillar believe so much in the inherent goodness of the national security state that they would rather put the focus on Snowden and “damage from the leaks.”
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 07:35:20 +0000
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