Snowden was able to walk out with the documents and we only know that because he told us. What this tells us is that these kind of leaks could have happened before and over enough time almost certainly would have. By making the leaks, and the way they where leaked, public Snowden has insured that that can not happen. Because the breach is in the public eye they can’t cover it up or ignore it. In short Snowdens actions have lead to us being more secure than we where.

But what about the documents that got out you cry! Well there again we are safer than these documents that very well could have been leaked before Snowden are now public knowledge and every one knows that every one knows at the very least what has been reported. The upshot is that our governments now have to act with the knowledge these programs have been exposed which is vastly preferable to them carrying on like they are secret with a huge gaping hole in the security that protect them.

Now it’s worth noting here that I’ve not yet even touched on the idea that the leaks where in the publics interests or even if the programs make us safer. What ever side of the argument you are on the above logic remains the same, the leaks could have already happened or happened in the future and in the event of those leaks it’s vastly better for the government and our safety that they’ve been done publicly via filtered and considered reporting. All but one other outcomes of this hole in NSA security are less preferable to this one and the other one is “it just happens to never be exploited” and if you’re are trusting your security to a group who banks on that you are in deep trouble already.

So yes, giving them to the planet, filtered by people who have an interest in not actually causing us harm is the best thing he could do. In fact I’d even go so far as to argue it is the single best course of action that could have been followed given the circumstance.