Flash! The US Uses Espionage

Oh my God! The horror! The UK’s Guardian newspaper is now reporting that the US is spying on other members of the UN Security Council. The fact that other members of the Security Council are spying on us seems to be irrelevant (though it is mentioned in an oblique sort of way).

The whole purpose of espionage is to provide a nation with information that could be useful in decision making. Every single country in the world is involved in espionage. It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that we are looking for an advantage in applying pressure to other governments to see our point of view. The more we know about what pressures they’re susceptible to, the easier our job of convincing them becomes.

As far as I see it, the only revelation here is that we may not be spying to hard on the British.

The article loses some of its self righteous indignation when in the last paragraph it says:

The operation appears to have been spotted by rival organizations in Europe. “The Americans are being very purposeful about this,” said a source at a European intelligence agency when asked about the US surveillance efforts.

For the Europeans to make a statement like that, they would also have to be engaged in espionage, mainly directed at us. Seems a little like complaining that the cop was wrong when he sped to catch you. That argument doesn’t actually hold much water, does it?

The Guardian, being a left wing rag, also prints reports of complaints about US “hostility” recently, including threats to aid packages. First off, a foreign paper has no right to complain about our spending decisions. If we want to give money to third world countries, that’s our right; if we want to give that money back to Americans and tell the third world countries to go jump in a lake, that’s our right also. We have the money, we have the economic choice to make and we have to weigh the opportunity costs associated with every possible decision. And secondly, the situation with Turkey has really blown it for the rest of the world. We will now be looking at a whole lot more stick and very little carrot. Trying the more carrot, less stick didn’t work; doesn’t make sense to try it again.

Spying is part of international diplomacy. Like it or not, we will do everything we can to gain an advantage in negotiations. Yes, I’ve argued that America should hold itself to a higher standard than we ask of the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean we have to take stupid actions just because someone doesn’t like what we do. We have our interests to protect. If you don’t like it, too bad.