Stop despotism here in U.S. first

I will readily agree that the North Korean government is (as Arizona's U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl pointed out) monstrously oppressive, even more so than that of our noble and tolerant allies Pakistan and Afghanistan.

However, rather than spending money on projects for which there is no constitutional authority, such as trying to turn 13th Century backwaters into South Asian Switzerlands, we should try to ensure that America does not become a despotic Third World nation itself.

We are trillions of dollars in debt because 90 or so percent of federal spending is for purposes that lack any constitutional authority. This process arguably began during the time of President Wilson (who jailed Eugene Debs for peacefully protesting against the war Wilson had been re-elected to keep us out of), and under whom the first peacetime income tax went into effect. I should note that the Lusitania was carrying weapons to the United Kingdom in violation of The Neutrality Act.

Has Kyl ever attempted to get rid of unconstitutional alphabet agencies such as the DHS, the ATF, the SSA, the DEA, the FBI, the EPA, etcetera? Has he attempted to repeal any of the 20,000-plus federal gun laws? Has he attempted to bring the troops home and secure our own ports and borders?

Those who wish to secure freedom abroad should spend their own money. Has Kyl attempted to repeal the NDAA, which gives the feds virtually unlimited authority to detain Americans without trial? Napolitano's DHS has labelled those who carry copies of the Constitution as potential terrorists. Has he attempted to prevent the feds from using thousands of drones for domestic spying? Let us not forget some of them have the ability to see through walls, as if being spied upon outdoors is not bad enough.

Russell Greenidge
Yuma