The Spies Who Loved to Damage Our Reputation
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, NYT
Perhaps there’s more we could do to antagonize American allies.
The National Security Agency could tweet Chancellor Angela Merkel’s juicy phone conversations, or post video clips on YouTube of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan singing in the shower.
The Pentagon could fly drones over Paris, dropping Big Macs on fine restaurants, just to show that we can.
Government officials fume at Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for harm they did to American security. Fair enough. But the latest uproar over our N.S.A. spying is a reminder of how senior American officials have themselves jeopardized our strategic interests — by overreaching and doing things just because they could.
Our national security policy has gone off the rails since 9/11. For a dozen years, security has been an obsession, rarely constrained by a weighing of trade-offs, and to what result? We have sought every tactical advantage, and this sometimes leads — as in eavesdropping of foreign allies — to strategic losses.
(More here.)
Perhaps there’s more we could do to antagonize American allies.
The National Security Agency could tweet Chancellor Angela Merkel’s juicy phone conversations, or post video clips on YouTube of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan singing in the shower.
The Pentagon could fly drones over Paris, dropping Big Macs on fine restaurants, just to show that we can.
Government officials fume at Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for harm they did to American security. Fair enough. But the latest uproar over our N.S.A. spying is a reminder of how senior American officials have themselves jeopardized our strategic interests — by overreaching and doing things just because they could.
Our national security policy has gone off the rails since 9/11. For a dozen years, security has been an obsession, rarely constrained by a weighing of trade-offs, and to what result? We have sought every tactical advantage, and this sometimes leads — as in eavesdropping of foreign allies — to strategic losses.
(More here.)
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