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In the past, the United States and other free nations have surely been victim of those who seek to infiltrate their societies, their technology, and disrupt their progress. Nevertheless, for a long time, the world hadn't seen such a dangerous threat and traitor as Edward Snowden, a 30-year old, north carolinian who worked at NSA-Contractors for quite sometime until he decided to succumb to the primitive notion of total, unrestricted, safe liberty.
Snowden travelled to Hong Kong around May and revealed top-secret information about American and British intelligence programs, all to an American and a British Newspaper. By many, he has been seen from that moment as a hero, and an inspiration; while in reality, the only thing Edward Snowden represents is a cooperator and indirect sponsor of terrorist acts, he himself, has become the biggest enemy of the liberties we enjoy and possess.
People need to be able to differentiate between a government intromission into your civil liberties and a fight to assure the survival of these same civil liberties. The Bush and Obama administrations have not forfeit your ability to send and receive e-mails or calls, they have not limited your right to dislike the government, these administrations haven't jailed you for disagreeing with the Iraq War or Obamacare, instead they have searched for those who seek to destroy your own ability to disagree with such issues. The fact that they haven't prohibited such things eliminates the vague argument that the federal government is undertaking actions proper of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, or other, like-minded, dictatorial, anti-dissent anarchists.
On the other hand, the impact such revelations have had on international relations has been underestimated by many, including probably Snowden himself. Nevertheless, the leak has strained relations not only between the already at-odds Chinese and American diplomatic corps, but between the strongest allies such as the United States and the European Union. This implies, not only that this crucial edge of security that has been forged between Washington and Brussels will be weakened and loosen, but it also implies that the newly-started trade agreement negotiations will be seriously affected or even halted, stopping billions of dollars from being invested here in America, and thousands of jobs from being created. American efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, to broker a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, and to negotiate a truce among Afghans and Talibans will now have a higher risk of failure as the international community starts to doubt the credibility of the United States and the operations it conducts.
Moreover, it is most crucial to consider the grave effects and implications these leaks will have on the progress we had built on protecting ourselves and our allies from the grip of terrorism. Not only will of course terrorists abstain further from utilizing the internet, and cellphones (and switch to other communication methods which we will have a hard time tracking) but they will get precisely what they want, an American and British public which is increasingly uneasy about its government. This will create the perfect social ambiance for terrorists, an ambiance based around division, lack of trust, and weakness.
Before concluding, it is extremely imperative to note that some believe because we prefer a smaller government, then we should prefer less government surveillance and intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism from harvesting in our territory, while in reality, it is precisely more important for those of us who prefer a smaller government to defend these undercover programs; we are the ones that must defend them as this type of programs are those that assure we will never need a stronger, more-centralized, almighty government which has to limit all our abilities to assure our safety.
It is the wish of all of us to have a smaller, smarter, more effective government, let us not for a single second confuse crucial surveillance programs that are aimed at precisely assuring our liberties with actions that are aimed at limiting our scope of dissent or actions that will ultimately make us less free, because it is in fact, this actions, that will permit our liberties to be expanded and strengthened, all because we are sure they can be exercised and built upon in a safe and stable environment; there will be no environment to wield this liberties and rights on if we are left unprotected.
God Bless America!
Written by: Ricardo Madrid A.
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