The A B Cs of Spying.

       Okay, here's where we're at. We've been spying on our enemies and our friends and everybody in between for years. In fact for decades, to varying degrees and with varying degrees of success. So have our enemies and friends and everybody in between been spying on us to varying degrees with varying degrees of success. That's really been what's called a secret everybody knows but nobody admits to. Everybody does it and nobody talks about it. Sortta like cheating on taxes.
       Then all of a sudden a couple of guys have spilled the beans. And now the French and Germans have to act shocked and displeased. And maybe they are, even though they know they do it themselves. Now it's time for us to act contrite. We're very sorry, we'll be more careful in the future. Of course it'll take time for the French and Germans to get over it, but they will. Especially if they get something juicy in the meantime.
       It's sortta much ado about little. When you spy on your friends, it's mostly to figure out how much they'll agree with what you want to do. Of course you don't hear anything from our enemies. They know we're spying. They're doing it to us. That's how they found out we were spying on them, a long time ago. Of course spying has gotten much more sophisticated, but that's progress.
       So what's all the hullabaloo? Well it's not about spying on other countries that has folks so upset. It's about spying on ourselves. That's what has folks upset.  And we've been upset since 2001. Ever since 9-11 and that awful day, our government has been doing everything it can to protect us from terrorists. The problem is that our government gave permission to our spies to spy on us, more and more every time we 've turned around. We knew they were listening in to our phone calls and computer emails, almost from the day after 9-11, or at least a short time later.
       Some folks haven't liked it at all, and some folks were satisfied that it was keeping us safe. Then those two guys started releasing secret information and people found out that all that spying was actually taking place. Well duh! They told you they were doing it. You apparently didn't believe them. It took two guys to make official secrets public for us to believe the government was spying on us. We would never believe the government because you can't trust anything politicians say. It's time for our government leaders to be contrite. To say they're sorry and that they'll be more careful in the future. Then they can get back to spying and we can get back to feeling safer. See how it all works out in  the end?