The answer is easy; because we have inquiring minds. We spy on our kids, especially our teenagers and parents if they are old and frail. It is part of being human, a very necessary part. In some instances it is absolutely vital that we spy on neighbors, the ice cream man, Sunday school teachers and the overly attentive pastor, uncle and middle-school coach. The word spy, under these circumstances, simply means parents, guardians—people responsible for someone else’s wellbeing—should stay alert to the range of possible misdeeds that could occur without appearing overly suspicious.
Spying is nothing more than collecting information that can be used to make wise decisions about your twelve year old spending the night with a friend if you are a parent or developing policy if you are a legislator.
Over twenty-five hundred years ago, the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote, “What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men is foreknowledge. Now this foreknowledge can not be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation. Knowledge of the enemy’s disposition can only be obtained from other men.” These simple truths set the stage for all intelligence operations (spying). They are as true now as they were then. They apply equally to the movement of great armies or small cells—to a war of arms or a war of words—to the conduct of war or the decision to make war. The concept is the same: learn about the enemy (or a potential enemy) in order to defeat him. Thank you, General Tom Walker(Ret)
It seems, here in the 21st Century, that people who gather intelligence are given a bad rap. If you are a spy for the US you are insuperable, you condone, and may even participate in the act of torturing, and you probably relish violating the rights of others. At least this is how some of us think. Spies are caught between a rock and a hard place in the eyes of the average American, He or she is either Jason Bourne, a troubled and highly trained black operations agent that has been targeted by his handlers for scrubbing, or, at the other end of the continuum, there is Bond, James Bond—never shaken, but always stirring. Are there Bournes and Bonds out there, probably? What about the rest, the analysts, operatives, paramilitary who perform the thankless and often dangerous job of intelligence gathering, what about them? A member of the US armed forces will receive recognition for their bravery, sacrifice and hard work, but members of organizations responsible for the collection and analysis of information won’t. There are no medals, no public commendations, only a star on some obscure wall if you loose your life in the line of duty.
The Moriah Ruse, a soon to be released novel written by Marvin Wiebener with this in mind, is a story of men and women that help keep us safe, people willing to accept anonymity and pay the ultimate price that sometimes comes with clandestine operations.