Opinion | America must give up its Snowden distraction

The Snowden affair has been bizarre, at times comic, yet it carries with it a potentially dangerous link. That danger lies not in what Edward Snowden has revealed, most of which is broad-brush accounts of the extent of electronic surveillance, but in its link to a much more dangerous issue, Syria. The connection is through Moscow.

Maybe no one can now stop the sectarian violence engulfing Syria and Iraq from spreading to their neighbours, but if anyone can, it is the US and Russia, by calling their own regional truce.

The US has been mishandling the Snowden affair by its criticism of Hong Kong, China and Russia for their failure to arrest him. Surely the US should have welcomed his sudden flight from Hong Kong, possibly to a small and remote country. He could rot there for years and get almost no media attention. Indeed, his now mentor Julian Assange was fading into the background before he found this new cause in a clearly clueless Snowden.

Snowden's sudden exit from Hong Kong made a nonsense of his previous protestations that he chose the city because of its liberal traditions and the independence of its judiciary. Here, he could state his case to the world, claiming he had only revealed activities that were in themselves illegal in the US as well as in jurisdictions targeted by surveillance. But, no, this self-proclaimed tribune fled before the threat that he might be put in jail while his case was being heard.

In reality, it is very likely that Hong Kong courts would have granted him bail due to the nature of the charges and favourable local public sentiment. Ultimately, if legal avenues failed, he could have applied for refugee status. But he did not have the guts to take the course he himself had chosen.

The strong US reaction to his non-arrest may be deemed necessary for domestic political purposes. President Barack Obama's desire to appear tough has seen a surge in drone warfare and crackdowns against supposed security leaks at home. But a US that conducted foreign policy driven by foreign rather than domestic political realities would recognise that concern about surveillance, and about the excesses committed under the Patriot Act, are rampant in friendly democratic countries in Europe and Asia.

For sure, most people trust the US, unlike China, not to use surveillance to crack down on dissent, and recognise that it has some role to play in anti-terrorism activities. But it is equally obvious that serious terrorists no longer communicate via Google, Skype and mobile phones, and no amount of electronic spying will prevent one-off attacks like the recent one in Boston.