We can’t really have the NSA spying debate in this country, and we really shouldn’t change the NSA spying laws, until we 1. have a public record of what kinds of terrorism attacks these programs have allegedly prevented, and 2. have a public debate about how this country should respond to terrorist attacks in general. Because if we just do this game of “oh I guess we were caught red handed spying on you all, we’ll stop it now” I can guarantee you that when another terrorist attack inevitably happens in this country, that we’re going to immediately hear “I told you so” from the pro-NSA people, and that the NSA programs are going to come back with absolute vengeance.
We need to talk about what’s a reasonable response to terrorist attacks. We haven’t had that discussion in this country. It was a taboo subject for years after 9/11, and we’re just getting to a place now where we could have that conversation. And if we don’t do it before there’s another attack we are seriously boned.
