Tom Cotton floats ‘massive retaliation’ against Iran

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) proposed a “massive retaliation” against Iran and implored President Biden to crack down hard in response to the spate of attacks on US assets in the region.

Cotton blasted the president for taking a restrained response to Iran, which hasn’t directly attacked the US, but acted via its proxies since the war erupted in Israel.

“We’ve only hit back a few times. When we do hit back, it’s almost always at empty proxy warehouses or maybe proxy forces in Iraq and Syria,” Cotton told “Fox News Sunday.”

“It seems like the president wants to go out of his way to avoid Iranian casualties,” he added. “I would target Iranians who are operating in Iraq and in Syria. I would also send a clear message to Iran if these attacks don’t stop immediately, then we’ll begin to threaten their assets.”

There have been at least 66 attacks on US forces since Oct. 17, according to the Department of Defense.

Cotton, 46, an army veteran who sits on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, has long been a hawk on Iran.

He posited that Biden’s tepidness against Tehran stems from “fear of escalation,” but countered that “escalation dominance” would deter aggression.

When asked about the risk of a kinetic response triggering a reaction “akin to World War III,” Cotton downplayed the possibility.

“What Reagan did when he sank half of Iran’s navy, it didn’t lead to an open, outright war,” he said. “After Donald Trump directed [the] killing of Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, Iran’s terrorist mastermind, Iran pulled in its horns for the rest of Trump’s era.”

“The way to stop these attacks is not be fearful and hesitant and cautious in a response, but massive retaliation to make it clear we will not tolerate these attacks on Americans.”

Iran, a Shiite-majority nation, has vehemently opposed Israel’s war against Hamas, a Sunni Islamic terrorist group that Tehran backs.

The Biden administration has come under scrutiny from Republicans, particularly over the suspension of his Iran envoy, Robert Malley who is subject to an investigation, the details of which are murky.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss, (D-Mass.) who appeared on the program after Cotton, defended the president’s policy toward the regime in Tehran.

“They have rolled out almost 50 new sets of sanctions that have helped lead to almost 50% inflation in the Iranian economy. Iran is desperate right now,” Auchincloss argued.