Cotton talks about IranBy Jennifer Rubin January 13
We suspected Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) would have a positive effect on the Senate. The veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan did not disappoint in a speech today at the Heritage Foundation.
He began with a simple reminder why we must oppose Iranian nuclear and territorial ambitions:
Iran is a radical, Islamist tyrannical regime. Upon coming to power, among its first actions was to invade sovereign American territory — our embassy in Tehran — and hold Americans hostage for over a year, an act of war for which it has never fully answered. The Iranian constitution states that Iran’s Army and Revolutionary Guard “will be responsible … for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God’s way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world.” . . . . Iran has been killing Americans for over thirty-five years. In 1983, Iran helped finance and direct the bombing of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, killing hundreds of American military, diplomatic, and intelligence personnel. In violation of all civilized norms, Iran helped plan and direct the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, which resulted in the death of a Navy diver. Iran has been implicated in the 1996 Khobar Tower bombings, which killed 19 American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia at the time. More recently, and more personally for me, Iran is responsible for the killing and maiming of thousands of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In short, Iran is at war with the West just as the Islamic State is. While operating a repressive totalitarian state at home, the Iranian regime “conducts many of these operations against America and our allies through terrorist proxies, as Iran remains the worst state sponsor of terrorism in the world, according to President Obama’s own State Department. Iran is a lead financer and arms supplier of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, vile terrorist organizations dedicated to destroying Israel. Iran has supported opposition Islamists in Yemen. And Iran has thousands of fighters on the ground in Syria to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s outlaw regime. While Iran likes to boast that it has joined the fight against the Islamic State, it’s done so only to protect Assad, and has threatened to attack U.S. forces currently fighting against the Islamic State if they target the Assad regime.”
Excerpt: Much more at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2015/01/13/cotton-talks-about-iran/
