Editorial Contest Winner | Stop I Spy Game With Allies

learning.blogs.nytimes.com /2014/04/24/editorial-contest-winner-stop-i-spy-game-with-allies/

Below, a piece by Edgar Hu.

Four months ago, German Chancellor Merkel found out that her phone calls were being monitored by the National
Security Agency and demanded the truth from President Obama. President Obama immediately told her that she is
not and will not be monitored. Eventually, he gave in to her demand to stop spying on foreign leaders and took into
account that foreign citizens should not be spied upon.

What have we accomplished from spying on our allies? For one, an embarrassing apology that led to a halt on
spying on some foreign leaders.

At this point, the United States needs to stop spying on its friends; its a waste of time.

The N.S.A. is overreaching its duties. While President Obama and officials assured Americans that the N.S.A.s only
purpose for surveillance is to prevent another terrorist attack (despite a panel commissioned by Obama himself that
flatly noted surveillance was not essential for the N.S.A.s purpose), the N.S.A. also eavesdrops on diplomatic
communications of friends for an advantage in negotiations and policy making which does not contribute to their
dubious claims of protecting national security.

R. James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA, writes in his Wall Street Journal article, Why We Spy on Allies, that
we wouldnt need to spy on Europeans if they would reform their economic policies and stop bribing. Sure, itd be
nice for someone to police their unethical behavior to save themselves and possibly even out the competition for
ourselves. But at a time when Americans are largely opposed to foreign interference (look at how people responded
to military action in Syria), these actions taken by the N.S.A. are unwarranted and do not represent our interests.

Finally, the N.S.A.s shrug-off excuse, Everybody else does it, why cant we?, relies on the reasoning of
Hammurabis Code of an eye for an eye. Theyre spying on us, so were spying on them. However, an eye for an
eye only ends up making the whole world blind. In this case, this constant back and forth spying is meaningless,
derailing the N.S.A. from the primary goal to fight terrorism at the expense of resources and tax dollars.

The government should follow Thomas Jeffersons advice, Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations entangling alliances with none. In an age of globalization where countries interact more than they used to,
it is important to treat each other in a manner Jefferson spoke of in order to make any sort of real progress as United
Nations. As a country that was founded on principles that include privacy, we should be one of the first countries to
halt surveillance on allied countries.

Works Cited:

Woolsey, R. James. Why We Spy on Our Allies. Wall Street Journal, 17 March 2000.

Sanger, David E. In Spy Uproar, Everyone Does It Just Wont Do. New York Times, 25 Oct 2013.

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