On the NSA listening in..

Much outrage in the US about the NSA potentially working out who rings who. I am sure someone else has probably said it already, but anyway:

Since Eschelon became known, (since about 1988, according to an article here,) it's been a fair assumption that just about anyone's call anywhere in the world could potentially be being listened to.

Why did Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton not wear any wave of criticism for this?

The fact that such intelligence stuff goes on doesn't matter much if it it is not being abused, although admittedly it will always have the potential for abuse.

Frankly, at least while ever the world retains the capacity to bomb itself back to the stone age, having really, really good intelligence seems a very good idea, and worth the risk of abuse.

And one good thing about democracies: there are lots of opportunity for actual abuse to be disclosed. No? Well at the moment, what we are seeing is plenty of leaking about the mere potential for abuse.