[allemagne]

I can understand feeling morally opposed to it, but a realist might tell you that it's important to spy on the German government simply because it's a powerful actor, even if it's an ally of the United States.

[shit_parade]

While another realist would point out that being caught spying on our fellow allies has seriously damaged our relations with them.

[Amezarak]

A realist would point our that our allies are also spying on us and the outrage is a facade being leveraged for political ends.

[biafra]

Or not. Merkel doesn't seem to care much anymore. They probably knew this was happening. It was just embarrassing that suddenly the public also knew.

[etrevino]

Bingo, and if you think that they're not (trying to?) watch us, you'd be wrong.

[XorNot]

That realist would be a fool who takes the exasperated statements of politicians at face-value. Were any long term trade agreements threatened? Embargoed in a way where they actually did it, not just talked about it? Was military cooperation withdrawn, diplomatic ties severed?

Absolutely none of this happened. A lot of words happened. Mysteriously, for exactly as long as Snowden was in the news right up till Russia invaded the Ukraine.