A quick question about this spying business...

[TreasonousBastard]

19. How quaint. Of course I don't appreciate a huge spy budget, but...

the fact is that we happen to live in a dangerous, sneaky, and scary world. Spies are, unfortunately, a fact of life-- everyone spies on us and we spy on everyone. Is that good? I doubt it, but try to change it.

When Stimson shut down the spies under Hoover, was there any interest at all in whether or not that eventually led to a blind spot in the activities of Germany and Japan?

Every time there's any kind of major tragedy, an attack, a storm, an earthquake, our immediate reaction is how to stop it from happening again, or at least to mitigate the damage.

After Pearl Harbor, who would dare say we don't need to watch out for foreign military ventures. After 9-11, who would dare say militants are no threat? Those in charge of seeing it doesn't happen again simply look at the possible consequences of not doing something that could be done.

If your job was to make sure another American city doesn't get horrifically attacked, how would you know where to stop? And how would your cost/benefit analysis look?