by Arnold Zeitlin
Here’s a copy of a message i’ve sent to family and other friends.
Would you believe it! Tom cotton, the wunderkind 37-year-old freshman u.s. Senator from arkansas whose open letter after he had been in the senate for just two months counseled iran’s theocrats on his idiosyncratic view of congressional power and american constitutional law, actually believes the “iranian people could be natural allies of the united states.”
Cotton said so right in public at a meeting of a second-tier washington dc think tank, the hudson institute, that graciously offers wannabe wonks a sandwich lunch at its occasional midday conferences. Coincidentally, michael dolan, a hudson institute senior fellow, has written that president obama came to office in 2009 believing that the united states and iran were natural allies.
Of course, cotton went on to say: “as long as the ayatollahs are in charge….certainly we cannot make rapprochement in iran.” read further down for cotton’s solution to this problem.
Hudson booked cotton’s appearance before the publication of the now celebrated letter, which was signed by 46 of cotton’s republican colleagues, including the senate’s resident hawk, john mccain, who wasn’t sure he actually read the letter before he signed it.
The publicity around the letter guaranteed hudson a full house, standing room only wednesday, no lunch needed (although it was served). the crowd illustrated how cotton’s name recognition has risen, perhaps, to the level enjoyed by another colleague, ted cruz of texas, also a junior senator with outrageous ambition. oddly, ivied harvard college and harvard law school, steadfast incubators of the mainstream establishment, have given us both these mavericks. the schools may want to revise their syllabi or re-examine their admission policies.
Cotton made his remark about the iranian people during a conversation on the hudson stage before that full house with an interlocutor, walter russell mead, another hudson fellow and professor of foreign policy at bard college and yale who has said he voted in 2008 for barack obama.
You can stop reading right now and see the whole conversation at:
Critics say that cotton’s letter was an awkward attempt to undermine u.s. efforts to reach an agreement on nuclear weapons with iran. cotton may have a personal interest in an agreement. after all, after 10 years — the proposed length of such an agreement — cotton may be running for president and the opportunity to deal more directly with those ayatollahs. don’t forget: cotton is from the same state that has given us bill clinton (and by marriage, hillary) and with his gawky charm, elongated neck, flapping ears and direct if innocent gaze, he does look a lot like the pre-presidential obama.
Cotton stated the conversation with a dire view of america foreign policy designed “to stop the worldwide descent into disorder and chaos that is going to be hurtful to american interests and threaten the lives of americans.”
From there, mead tried to coax cotton into disclosing exactly how he would go about achieving this enormous goal.
For example, mead asked “how do we win the global war on terror?”
Cotton’s response: “we have to confront them…we have to show islamic radicals that we will not retreat.”
Now that we’ve taken of that issue, mead asked, what about putin?
The answer: “it’s time to confront putin and make him realize that the west is actually stronger than he is.”
As for iran, you guessed it: “we have to confront iran’s drive not just for nuclear weapons but for regional hegemony….”
Cotton was scarce about details of exactly how the united states should go about all this confrontation but he indicated the direction he wants to go:
“The first thing we have to do is make sure we have a strong military….by far the strongest in the world so no one would think of challenging us….we need to substantially increase our defense spending if we are going to preserve order around the world.”
Comforting, isn’t it, to have someone around with solutions to our dilemmas.
Luv all, dad (aka az)
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Arnold Zeitlin, Managing Director
Editorial Research & Reporting Associates (ERRA)
13828 Coleman Court, Centreville, Virginia 20120, U.S.A.
Telephone: 1 703 802 0888
azeitlin@hotmail.com
http://azeitlin.wordpress.com/
