Now there’s a kerfluffle about our spying on our good friend and ally, Germany. I would imagine we “spy” on a lot of people, just as a lot of people spy on us, including our allies. All countries operate in their own self-interest, and gathering intelligence seems like a necessity. (For example, are the Germans providing the means for their companies to make money by breaking the embargo against Iran? I have no idea, but our government probably feels it needs to know.)
My consultant’s question is this: If we spy so much, how come we know so little?
We seem to be pretty constantly surprised by what happens in Libya, Iraq, Russia, France, Italy, Israel, and China, just to name a few friends and foes. We’re either not spying at all or we’re really pretty lousy at it.
When I was working with Mercedes years ago, they were fond of pointing out the Lexus would reverse-engineer their cars to copy aspects of the engineering, but they would settle for the cosmetic and miss the true purpose of the design (cushioning the gas tank against impact or taking water away from sight lines).
If we’re spying on Germany, we’re still not able to build a car in the US as good as a Mercedes, nor beat their soccer team. So what’s the point?
© Alan Weiss 2014
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