Excluded Middle

There seems to be a crisp dichotomy between the opinions regarding Edward Snowden’s leaking of National Security Agency (NSA) secrets.  Many, like Daniel Ellsberg and the New York Times view him as a patriot and Dick Chaney (among many others) think him a callous traitor.  Snowden himself says, “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.”  The Diplomad blog, which I often read, views him as treasonous … but many of the comments therein disagree … see: The Diplomad Blog … and please read through the many thoughtful comments.

Now comes my opinion -- there is a law in logic that deals with such a situation, namely that most opiners are ignoring that both possibilities might be true … or the “excluded middle” (see: Princeton Comments ). And so, I believe that Snowden is both a patriot and a traitor.  He has opened up the debate about what exactly the intelligence operations in this country should be permitted to do without destroying our fundamental freedoms.  For this he is a hero.  But he has also a turncoat … and, through fuzzy thinking and media grandstanding, is revealing many national security secrets that are doing great damage to our counter-terrorism efforts and embarrassing us with our allies.  Unlike many Americans, I don’t think that one conclusion mitigates the other one.

For this latter gross malfeasance, I think he should be extradited and tried for treason.  If he is found guilty, I would have no problem with his being executed.  Such a punishment would clear the minds of other potential Benedict Arnold's before they are duped and try to grab international headlines with such dangerous revelations.