Surprised that no one has tried to make a connection between this discovery (of the botnets) and the (US Government's) request that Twitter remain online during the recent election protests in Iran.

I think you may a good argument.

Could it be applied to the USA, by chance? Think, for example, of military expenditures or more recently of the anti-ballistic missile defence system. Does the argument apply? Why or why not?

Just asking for opinions - esp. from American citizens. Really.