>>5A war could break out if the master key didn't exist to be compromised. Forget about terrorists for a second, who are small problems anyway, and focus on the real possibilities if groups with real resources can be allowed to just encrypt anything at all. Just think about a different threat that we thought vanquished but is planning to rear it's ugly head again soon. One day, Mexico sends an encrypted notice to Germany to state that it will take it up on it's offer. The US can't read the message, so they don't know what's about to happen. Britain's totally in the dark, and France is drunk, so no one sees it coming. That offer they accept: the Zimmerman Telegram. They've been waiting for this day. BOOM goes Germany as the Kaiser resumes power and attacks France through Belgium to resume World War One. The trenches are dug thirty miles from Paris, where both nations start gassing each other. Hundreds of thousands killed in a matter of days. Only this time, instead of just incendiary shells, they lob nuclear weapons from their artillery. Millions of civilians are killed with every passing minute. Soldiers on both sides are crushed by each others tanks, but the generals refuse to admit that the age of trench warfare is over, and persist in sending wave after wave of men (and women and trans-women) in suicide attacks that gain nothing. A victorious battle's gains are measured in centimeters. British, American, and French are slaughtered by superior German engineering. Meanwhile, on the eastern front, Czar Putin's main forces are busy brutalizing Ukrainian peasants and they have to send their forces against Germany armed with nothing but broken vodka bottles. The Germans kill so many Russians that they begin to feel bad and surrender out of pity. Allied forces have the dim idea to attack the ISIS Caliphate in Istanbul, but, aided by German machinery, were able to obtain air superiority and crash half the US Air Force's fleet. China starts thinking that now might be a good time to take back the Senkaku Islands, so invade Japan. After taking Tokyo and killing Hatsune Miku, the Japanese are enraged to the point of imperialistic fervor and, taking loses in the tens of millions, repel the Chinese. They conscript every man, woman, and teenage boy to man the battle suits and begin reclaiming their previous territory. Oh, and don't forget about Mexico. The millions of sleeper cells are activated and kill every cowboy in Texas, causing a meat and oil shortage. Ordinary American citizens starve to death while the unmanaged cows walk a mere meter from them. The energy crisis means phones can no longer be charged and gas prices reach almost $4.20 a gallon. The US collapses into civil war. The South quickly reinstitutes slavery and fights well as they throw slave after slave into the path of Union machines, which they must avoid at the cost of their own lives because Black Lives Matter. Cut off from the south, the Union is forced to invade Canada to get the oil needed for a war on two fronts. Meanwhile, Mongolia has been freaking the fuck out when both Russia and China go to war, and, having no other choice, assembles the hordes in case they need to defend their country. But, by the time they assemble, China is getting raped by Japan and Russia is falling apart from the inside. Realizing their position of power, a new Khan is chosen and attacks China in a brutal assault. The Mongol hordes swiftly depopulate China, killing hundreds of millions and raping almost 400 million women. Since the Japanese had already raped all the children, they lose interest rather quickly and expand into the Middle East. With all the rapes and beheadings, the Islamic world doesn't even know that their there until it is too late. Even the oligarchs are taken aback by the violence and Russia renews it's oath of fealty to the Ruler of All Who Dwell in Tents once more. The Khan decides to complete the mission to conquer the entire globe once and for all. They round up all the citizens they find and herd them like animals into the gunfire onslaught until the enemy soldiers run out of bullets when they attack Europe. Exhausted and factionalized, the European countries fall one by one to the savage, illiterate barbarians mounted on horseback. Tens of billions of tons of loot is hauled back to Mongolia. They finally reach the Atlantic and split their forces. One army expands south into Africa and takes everything in a matter of hours. The other attacks North America over the North Pole and take everything in their brutal march south. After only a few years, the only independent countries are the islands, because the Mongols are too fucking stupid to build boats. With less than a billion people still left alive, the world is plunged into a ten thousand year dark age.
All because you people are too paranoid to give the government the power to gather intelligence. So, was it worth it?