The U.S. needs to reverse the policies of the Obama and Biden administrations and treat Iran as "an evil enemy that cannot be placated," said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Two days after three American troops were killed, and dozens more injured in an overnight drone strike in northeast Jordan, Cotton said Iran and its terrorist proxies are exploiting a "weak" and "cowardly" president.
"[President] Joe Biden is weak and pathetic and cowardly," Cotton said on Hugh Hewitt's podcast. "You don't deter people like the ayatollahs who govern Iran by going on TV and saying, 'Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.' You do it by holding at risk and ultimately destroying or killing the things and the people they hold most dear, like the Revolutionary Guard shock troops.
"Iran is laughing at us and high-fiving because they've had a decadeslong strategy of using proxies throughout the Middle East to attack us so they can deny that it was them. And what do we do when we only attack Iranian proxies? We validate their proxy strategy."
Cotton cited the America-First leadership of former President Donald Trump, under whom Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed, and former President Ronald Reagan, under whom half of Iran's navy was sunk or severely damaged.
"Unfortunately, this is the result of eight years of failed policy of Barack Obama and his understudy, Joe Biden. Or, I'm sorry, 11 years," Cotton told Hewitt. "Eight years under Barack Obama, and three years under Joe Biden.
"They have viewed Iran as a normal nation that has legitimate grievances against America, and if we would simply conciliate with them and appease them and grant them one-sided concessions, Iran would pull in its horns and begin behaving like a normal nation, and everything would be wonderful again in the Middle East.
"It's not the case. Iran has been an unappeasable enemy of the United States for 45 years."
Cotton said the only way to respond to Sunday's attack is with "massive and devastating military retaliation against Iran's terrorist forces throughout the region and in Iran itself. Only then will Iran realize that killing an American is an absolute red line that they can never cross again.
"We have to totally reverse the failed Obama-Biden policy of 11 years and view Iran for what it is, an evil enemy that cannot be placated, that can only, in the long run, be defeated. That should be the policy of the United States."
Cotton, an Army veteran, said there was "no shortage of targets that we could take out that would send a message to the Ayatollah."
"We certainly should target all IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] camps and boats or ships and bases," he said. "But there's also other targets that would put immense pressure on Iran.
"For instance, their refineries, because that is a massive bottleneck in the Iranian economy, one also that is controlled in so small part by the people that run the IRGC, who are also getting rich off the killing of Americans."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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