Yes, clearly, yes. Because USA do not have ANY economic interest in Africa and Middle East, and whatever these countries have as a government it doesn't change a thing for them. I mean, it's not like they have oil to sell and can alter the world's economy with a simple statement.
This, as much as the domestic spying stuff bothers me, this uber-left uber-pacifist view of things is asinine. China, Russia, Iran, etc aren't stopping their SIGINT or cyberwarfare programs and neither should we.
I also don't care if Germans are our "allies." 9 months ago Russia and Ukraine were best friends, now Russian soldiers are blowing away Ukranian civilians with total impunity. Shit changes. Shit gets real quick. Being at a information disadvantage can lead to serious consquences.
I think we live in a time too used to peace and as we can see from recent events, that time is now over. The far left's obsession with pacifism and the far right's obsession with isolationism are just impractical. This just causes conflicts that need to happen to be put away and ignored which leads to larger conflicts later. For example, the US and Iraq should have worked together when ISIS took Fallujah MONTHS AGO. The US should not have caved into pressure from the EU and Russia to not take out Assad. Instead, we chose the path of politics and sticking our head in the sand and an entire region just became destabilized. On top of it, petty dictators like Putin see our weakness and use it against us by invading his neighbors, knowing he'll only receive a slap on the wrist.
Downvote away, but we need SIGINT, now more than ever.
