National Security vs American Liberties by Michael Wright

The conflict between national security and privacy has been a primary issue in the United States since the terrorist attacks on 9/11. It has forced the government to pay more attention to the everyday lives of Americans and the actions of other nations in the world. Many government agencies have been put in place to preserve national security but a lot of Americans believe that the methods these agencies use are violating the rights of Americans. The belief that preserving national security is more important than respecting certain freedoms has been a driving force when it comes to the actions of these agencies. The country is divided on whether national security or privacy is more important than the other and which of them should be focused on primarily in the United States. The national security of the country is very important but there should be a limit to what can be done when trying to preserve it. The freedoms of Americans should always be respected by the government since the various freedoms that the United States have provide its citizens is one of the primary reasons people come to this country. The security agencies have put additional surveillance in place and can gather personal information on any person they deem as a threat to national security because of the patriot act that was passed by congress to combat terrorism.  

The Patriot Act has many positives that have lead the United States in the right direction of preserving national security one being that it stops terrorists from laundering money into businesses by putting their assets on ice. Even though the patriot act has positives it contains various negatives as well. The individuals who oppose the patriot act have tried to undermine it by expressing the idea that the government exploits the tools that are provided to them by the act but there isn’t any real evidence of any abuse of power. It is often said that it’s not right that the patriot act allows these security agencies to gather personal information on who ever their investigating but these methods of collecting information are used in every day court cases. On the other hand the patriot act could have some aspects that can be viewed as problematic. The first being that the personal information of all Americans could be collected even if there not engaged in any terrorist activities. 

The universal belief is that everyone in the United States has the right to privacy unless they are breaking the law or trying to break it which is a primary reason why the patriot act is opposed throughout the United States. The provisions that the patriot act have provided security agencies has made many Americans distrustful and suspicious of their governments activities which is very detrimental to the growth and protection of the country. If a country had a minimal or lack of privacy it would be very hard to deal with and may be intolerable for most but too much privacy is a dangerous thing because there are always interior threats that come along so there needs to be some kind of balance.

It’s safe to say that the privacy of Americans will became of little importance if terrorist organizations break through the United States security and take whatever information they want on whoever they want. This is a primary reason why preserving national security should be valued more than the various freedoms that people have been granted because the goal is to prevent personal information from being released to individuals who would try using it for malicious purposes.

The United States has always had problems with whether national security or privacy should have greater importance but there is no answer because both have equal importance to each other. The solution is to find a middle ground and create a balance which means that the nation and its people must put their differences aside so this can be possible. The government should be less secretive when it comes to the things there doing to preserve national security and the American people need to be more accepting of those actions as well as being more cooperative. The freedoms that will have in America like privacy should be revered but people need to understand that it could easily be taken away from them for others if national security doesn’t implement firm procedures and policies.