Your assuming he intended in the beginning to do harm. Having a quick look at his background he originally joined the military
Because he was a high school dropout. FYI, the military is one of the few organization that accepts drop outs (unofficially) and pays a survivable income (barely), as opposed to working at Taco Bell and putting yourself thru college.
but broke two legs and so was not able to continue.
Duh, that's when happens when you join the military. And he apparently was too damn stupid to figure out that the government was crock of !@#$ after it failed to take care of him in spite of him having "served his country."
He then joined NSA as a guard and eventually got the job he had because he was good at IT.
TRANSLATION: having screwed up by making a dumb decision to join the military, instead of learning his lesson, he decided to work for the
same institution (uncle sammy) who treated him like dirt, because it was easy to do so, as opposed to marketing his IT skills for a noble cause.
Kinda like a prostitute who goes back to her pimp.
It sounds like he was someone who wanted to give to his country.
Sounds like he was a loser who aimed for the lowest thing he could get that gave him the biggest paycheck.
Maybe in your world everyone knows everything before they begin
Grown ups are supposed to. Only small kids are exempt.
but I have never noticed this. I would say it looked like he joined for the right reasons, wanting to help his country and it looks like he has become a whistle blower for exactly the same reason, giving up a lot personally to do this.
That's only the reason he
says he's doing it. We don't know his
actual motive.
But what is known is that
real heroes
NEVER work for dishonorable institutions, even if they pay big $$. They say "no way, Jose" and walk away, and aim for something else.
Snowden was NOT one of those people. He was a coward who jumped at the first thing that came his way, and now is paying the price for it, but IMHO, not a big enough price.