If the US continues to humiliate European governments, and to throw its considerable weight around -- weight that these days is largely adipose, not muscular -- Europe could quickly come to resemble South America, where the popular sentiment towards the United States has long been oppositional, not friendly.
In a way, it appears that the NSA's global spying operations may be a kind of last gasp of a dying empire trying to retain its power by using its technological advantage to obtain blackmail power over foreign government leaders. Given the popular anger in France, Germany and elsewhere at the spying, and the various target governments' timid responses to Snowden's revelations, there is almost no other explanation for European politicians' collective failure to play to popular demands to throw the US spooks out. The only European leader who has had the guts to stick it to the US has been Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose sprawling spy program, while perhaps not a match for America's state security apparatus, no doubt still has sufficient resources to be able to counter blackmail with blackmail.
Snowden made a good choice, even if it was one forced on him by the US lockdown of most potential asylum states and of all his aerial escape routes to the few countries in Latin America that had the courage to make the offer of asylum. Russia is a country where he can probably feel secure, especially given his threat to have allies around the world release truly damaging US national security secrets he took into exile with him, should anything happen to him. No doubt Russia's government will be kind to him, in hopes that he will discretely reveal those secrets to them on his own voluntarily.
The remaining question is how long the somnolent and passive US public will continue to buy the crap that Washington is spreading about the allegedly critical importance of the NSA's massive spying programs to "keeping Americans safe."
The latest scare stories about overheard communications between the supposedly many-times-slain Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and the Yemen branch of al Qaeda, allegedly calling for attacks on US embassies and Americans abroad, stories which have led to the US closing its Middle Eastern embassies for a week, and urging all Americans to leave Yemen, are a pathetically transparent effort to both terrorize Americans again while touting the alleged skills of the NSA. In fact, closing the embassies for a week accomplishes precisely nothing, since any actual terrorist or group of terrorists planning an attack can just postpone the action until the embassies are open again for business. As for Americans leaving -- advising people to make an unplanned and anxious run for the exits just opens them to attack as they will be leaving familiar surroundings where neighbors can help and protect them, for transit points where they will be concentrated, obvious, and more attractive and vulnerable as targets, whether for a real, orchestrated or "false flag" attack.
We have slid back to the equivalent of the old days when President Bush's spanking new Homeland Security (sic) Agency would periodically announce a change in the color-coded "threat alert" system, which would then get broadcast by a compliant news media along with the weather reports each day. Remember?: "Thursday's forecast: threat of thunderstorms, high winds and the terrorist threat alert is Red. Friday's weather will be sunny with occasional clouds and an terror threat level of Orange."
There's no utility in any of this, from the point of view of public safety. It's all a brazen attempt to win public support for the ongoing establishment -- now pretty much complete -- of a total surveillance national security state.
Maybe the citizens of this country will wake up and say "No!" But at this point, to do so would require an aroused public willing to go to the polls and toss out every member of Congress who has been supporting the spying, and replacing them with ardent defenders of the First and Fourth Amendments.
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