LETTER: U.S. government spying on foreign allies
To the Editor:
The decision of the United States government to spy on foreign allies has caused quite a stir recently in global news. The biggest controversy is over the wire-tapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. All of this came about after the release of NSA documents. Many countries are now furious with the U.S. government. And rightfully so in my opinion. I believe the U.S. government should forever discontinue spying on allied nations’ leaders.
According to a CNN article, Merkel said Germany’s trust with the U.S. had been “severely shaken.” These allegations that have come out against the United States have also ruined the trust with many world leaders and allies. According to the same article, France had more than 70 million phone calls tapped in one month. This evidence that is coming out would be frightening for any country who would want to ally itself with the United States. A New York Times article has classified this as a “diplomatic crisis.” Many nations are now calling for legislation to ban all spying on their countries. Basically, we have angered our friends and threatened our chances of ever gaining more allies.
I would hope it would be common sense that the government should not be spying on our allies. You would expect the government would consider the economic consequences if our allies ever found out. Spying and loss of trust could greatly affect trade, tariffs, taxes and other relations with our allies. In an article called “Trust and Growth,” they found GDP growth is positively correlated with trust. The study states GDP grows by about one percent for each fifteen points of “trust” in their research. So, by losing the trust of other countries, we put our economic growth in peril. If you want your allies to remain on your side, you should probably treat them as your friends. Spying on emails and phone calls don’t seem like really friendly activities.
In conclusion, our country has gotten itself into a lot of trouble because we decided to spy on our allies. There is not anything we can do about the fact that we spied on them before. What we can do now is commit to all of our allies to never spy on them again. Rebuilding the trust we once had with them will take time. However, I believe committing to never spy on them again is the only way we can maintain any of our remaining allies that we have remaining. The government should pass legislation to permanently ban spying on ally nations.
– Tyler Sorenson