There are somewhere between four and six million closed-circuit security cameras in the United Kingdom. That’s roughly one camera for every 11 people living in the sovereign state. Meanwhile, in Israel, airport security relies heavily on racial profiling and intense personal scrutiny by highly trained security agents who have extensive military training.
These are two examples of world powers deploying aggressive tactics to effectively protect their citizens from those who wish to harm them. Despite the fact that the United States' ally’s tactics far surpass our own national security stratagems, the U.S. continues to struggle with the issue of whether or not the National Security Agency violated the Fourth Amendment by tapping phones within our borders.
As opposed to the hundreds of years of traditional warfare our country has engaged in during our history, we now find ourselves fighting an enemy that we can’t see coming. Gone are the days of meeting the enemy on an open battlefield and seeing which army has more firepower and might. Cyber attacks, chemical weapons and other terrorist tactics have rendered the old ways of war to be obsolete. As a result of this, we as a society must adapt our views on how we can keep our infrastructure safe. We must ask ourselves which do we value more, our privacy or our security? In today’s world, we cannot have both.
The actions of the NSA are not only perfectly legal under our current laws, but they are also necessary to combat new threats that our country faces today from terrorists both foreign and domestic. With the recent ruling from a New York City federal judge stating that the phone surveillance program was a necessary and calculated response to the 9/11 attacks, the public opinion of the NSA is beginning to change for the better. When adding context to the phone surveillance program, society must realize that it provides our government with a strong foundation from which to collect data and track potential threats to our country.
Before our government can declare a strong course of action against terrorism, like the UK and Israel have done before us, our society must decide if we are ready to part with some aspects of our “privacy” in the name of national security. It is safe to say that all American citizens want to live in a safer world, but, as a society, we are divided when it comes to how we will achieve this goal.
The NSA is not seeking to violate privacy and intrude on our phone calls. They, like us, want to work toward creating a safer world while protecting us from the dangers. Just like I would not tell my dentist how to treat a cavity, society does not have the knowledge and facts to tell a government agency how to do its job.
Americans should not curtail the NSA’s ability to keep us safe in the name of our privacy. Change is never easy and often presents us with new fears and challenges. We are the most resilient country on Earth and I am confident we will overcome our fear of the NSA and let them do their jobs so we can focus on our day-to-day jobs. Let’s help them help us.