Snowden-Taking the Moral High Ground

The United States would like to have things both ways when it comes to exacting justice from its peoples. First, we want them to be honest, and forthright, and dedicated. Then, we want them to do all kinds of radical things and not speak out about it when what we are being asked to do is clearly unethical, immoral, and probably illegal.

During Vietnam soldiers were given orders to do horrific things to civilian populations that someone felt were supporting the Viet Cong. There were at least dozens of incidents in which the population bore the brunt of bombings, napalm runs, and artillery attacks at the behest of someone in Saigon or elsewhere. Of those, we have only the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968 to show how the government works.

While everyone who was around in those days is aware of the outcome and how Lt. William Calley was singled out for prosecution, we tend to forget the initial attacks on the so-called whistle blowers who let everyone know about such a horrible event. Initially, the three servicemen tried to stop the massacre and afterward did nothing more than tell the truth about it. Several U.S. congressmen denounced the men as traitors. They received hate mail and death threats and had mutilated animals dropped on their doorsteps. Later on, they were widely praised and given Army medals for their “heroic” actions.

In the more recent NSA case, where Edward Snowden decided to “leak” information about all these questionable activities the U.S. Government is perpetrating on “we the people,” things are lining up pretty much the same way. What Snowden chose to do, while it may be “treasonous” in some eyes, falls clearly outside the bounds of legal versus illegal. What the NSA did was clearly unethical, likely immoral, and quite possibly illegal.

So now it seems the government is upset with Mr. Snowden about letting people know what many of us had suspected for a long time. The US Government will go to great lengths to get the goods on the American public. While they may only be using it to catch bad guys, I personally have a problem with the government snooping. Having grown up in the 60s I know they cannot be trusted.

In light of the other events that have come about, is it really such a stretch to say the NSA is above board with the data they are collecting? I mean, how are those folk any more trustworthy than the IRS? And the IRS is not trustworthy at all.

For years, the running joke was that if you did something the president didn’t like he would sic the IRS on you. Well, apparently, that joke isn’t totally true. The president needn’t sic them on anyone they seem to have figured out on their own who to attack.

Perhaps, as my son puts it, this has been going on for decades. In which case, what’s the difference anyway? It doesn’t really matter how much we rail against the machine, because the only thing that can investigate the machine is…yeah, you guessed it, the FBI. Oh, and did we tell you about the scandal at the FBI? No? Oh well, not to worry it will all be in the papers somewhere pretty soon, and the FBI will be trying to shut down one of their own who finally see the light and let out all the information about how those storm troopers go about their business.

All I can say is you have to trust your government. They are only out there looking out for your best interests, really. And if a few ants get squished along the way, we’ll I am sure they are sorry and will send you a note stating so.