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Comment by ceilingcorner | Hacker News Reader

It’s a simple game of competition. If your competitors have them, then you must have them too. The situation is not dissimilar to nuclear weapons.

In 2020, people seem to forget that the Cold War happened and that the KGB, GRU, etc. existed. Most of these outrageous CIA actions were done in the context of combating the Soviets.

In short, you will probably never be able to remove the role of intelligence from geopolitics.

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>>"In 2020, people seem to forget that the Cold War happened and that the KGB, GRU, etc. existed. Most of these outrageous CIA actions were done in the context of combating the Soviet"

If this article have a message is that those dirty wars were against the poor people living in those countries, not against the KGB.

And what is the excuse after the cold war? Because nothing has really changed.

But this logic doesn't explain why we need the NSA to spy on its own citizens? I mean, sure if someone else is spying on you, you need to spy on them. But if someone else is spying on you, you definitely don't need to spy on yourself.

Sure but that’s just a typical example of abuse of power. The initial comment was about dismantling such institutions.

Well I also questioned whether they should be given as much power, since it can lead to abuse. Would be as simple as changing a law so they can no longer abuse their power. And if it's not that simple, maybe you have to question why.

I would assume that NSA spying is used primarily for insider trading and other forms of market manipulation.

>Most of these outrageous CIA actions were done in the context of combating the Soviets.

"In the context of combatting the Soviets" isn't a good excuse. If these acts were done to combat the Soviets it may have been worthwhile, but using the Communist scape goat to force your will on the world, which is what the article is claiming happened, should not be common foreign policy.

I didn’t say it was a good excuse, I said that was the context in which it happened.

With that logic, you can cover for any thinkable activity 'because soviets'. We don't like european politicians? Bam, because soviets. Cause millions of deaths around the world? Worth the cause, 'coz soviets. Anybody does anything but exactly what we need them to (which in many cases would mean self-harm)? Commie ruskie, bam!

Change soviets with terrorists for 21st century.

Can you stop being unnecessarily hostile? As I already said, I was explaining the rationale for the actions, not justifying them.

Take your low-effort outrage elsewhere, please.

The article details numerous situations where the Soviets were not the rationale, merely the scapegoat. That's what led me to respond, I don't see how the fake rationale changes anything.

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