[AnimalMuppet]

It's not that simple.

Arguably, NSA-type stuff (SIGINT) saved our behinds in World War II. Enigma let us read the German intentions, and Purple let us know what the Japanese were planning. The battle of Midway, for example, could have been completely different without SIGINT. So there's good historical precedence that we need something like the NSA.

On the other hand, we didn't figure out what the Japanese were up to by collecting metadata on domestic telephone calls. That is, some SIGINT activities are arguably essential, and some are... otherwise. The "otherwise" ones are both more intrusive to personal privacy, and less effective at national defense.

So one can be in favor of having the NSA, and against the NSA as it has become.

Side note: If there's ever another successful attack on the scale of 9/11, you're really going to see the US move toward a police state...