I have to say, I also don't believe in much of ability of spies (and domestic spying) in actually protecting the nation. In case of war or copying other techno

I have to say, I also don't believe in much of ability of spies (and domestic spying) in actually protecting the nation. In case of war or copying other technology, they may have a lot of merit, as many commenters have said. But if you actually look at the world, most of the small nations do just fine without Internet snooping. If survival of a nation would require to snoop the Internet, all of the small nations (and some are really really small) would be dead. So it's probably a case that someone wants to be a bully, so they need the counterspies to handle all the blowback.