The Next "War on…"

My last blog post got me thinking about America's war on…things. The "War on Drugs" started in 1971 when President Nixon declared, "America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse". The "War on Terror" started in 2001 with the attacks on 9/11.

If it's true that the "War on Drugs" is coming to an end, then what is the next "War on…" that America will take up?

I think that it'll be the War on Privacy. The US has already created many institutions like the NSA to monitor its citizens. From the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01 the NSA has grown by 1/3 to 33,000 employees in July of 2013. In addition, 14% of the country's intelligence budget (about $10 billion) goes to the NSA every year. Compared to $2 billion in 1996, this shows the magnitude of the growth (5x) in 17 years of an organization created to monitor US citizens.

There was a big scare near the end of 2013 and early 2014 over the NSA being able to tap people's iPhones and read their iMessages. Although Apple has denied these rumors, it still shows the fear and mistrust surrounding organizations like the NSA, and the apparent mistrust of the US government concerning its citizens.

So what do you think? Will we be facing "The War on Privacy"?