Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said bombing Iran would be relatively quick, painless – and facilitate diplomatic negotiations.

The freshman senator said Tuesday on the Family Research Council’s “Washington Watch” radio program that military action against Iran’s nuclear capabilities might be preferable to entering a deal negotiated by the Obama administration, reported Buzzfeed.

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“Even if military action were required — and we certainly should have kept the credible threat of military force on the table throughout which always improves diplomacy — the president is trying to make you think it would be 150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq and that’s simply not the case,” Cotton said.

Cotton said full-scale war – like the lengthy Iraq War – would be unnecessary, arguing that diplomacy could be prodded along with a quick bombing raid.

“It would be something more along the lines of what President (Bill) Clinton did in December 1998 during Operation Desert Fox,” he said.

“Several days (of) air and naval bombing against Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction facilities for exactly the same kind of behavior (used to justify the Iraq War), for interfering with weapons inspectors and for disobeying Security Council resolutions,” Cotton said. “All we’re asking is that the president simply be as tough as in the protection of America’s national security interest as Bill Clinton was.”