Hawkish Sen. Tom Cotton was confronted by an anti-war activist on Friday, provoking a tense and awkward exchange about the United States’s role overseas.

Fred Boenig, whose son died in Afghanistan in 2010, was seated next to Cotton at a foreign policy discussion at Johns Hopkins’ campus in Washington. As Cotton, a veteran of military conflicts in the Middle East, went through his brawny foreign policy views and bashed President Barack Obama’s “dangerous” vision in Iran and other global hotspots, he turned to ask Boenig about the four pins he was wearing.


The Pennsylvania man explained they signify the service of four of his children in the military, then said when Cotton speaks all he hears is “somebody knocking at my door again” with bad news, challenging the senator to identify when the last U.S. military casualty overseas occurred, the same challenge he gave self-proclaimed hawk Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) in February.

Cotton said Americans have died in Afghanistan but couldn’t give the precise answer, which Boenig said was 58 days. He then asked when Americans can truly say war is over in the Middle East.

“There’s no definite answer because our enemies get a vote in this process. I’m deeply sorrowful for your loss and I greatly honor the service that all of your children have rendered, like all of our veterans do. But in the end the best way to honor our veterans … ” Cotton responded.

“Is to have more killed?” interrupted Boenig.

“ … Is to win the wars in which they’ve fought,” Cotton finished.

The anti-war Boenig, a radio host in Pennsylvania, was unimpressed and went on to criticize Cotton for attending a defense contractor’s meeting after sending an open letter to Iran’s senior leadership.

“It’s very clear what your views are sir. My views are keeping our kids safe, which include my children. Now that you have a child, you will understand,” Boenig warned Cotton, who just celebrated the birth of his first son. “When you speak of sending our kids again, let’s make it worth it not just to send them to politically help some Haliburton or somebody else.”

Cotton insisted that the current “threat environment that we face here at home and throughout the West is more grave today than at anytime during our lifetimes.”

“I wish that weren’t that case,” Cotton said. “But for the time being it is. We have to remain vigilant and we have to continue to take the fight to the terrorist.”

The exchange highlights the tension in Washington over an air war against the Islamic State that Congress has refused to vote on, an ongoing battle over military spending and the rise of Cotton’s influence ahead of the GOP presidential primary. But the confrontation between Boenig and Cotton ended in a polite manner, with each thanking the other for their contributions to the military and Boenig posing for a photo with the Senate’s youngest member.

In an interview after the event, Boenig said Cotton handled the encounter politely and answered his questions, even if he didn’t like the answer.

“He handled it the way I expected him to handle it. He’s a hawk. I’m a tree-hugging, peace-loving, gay wedding, you know, whatever,” Boenig explained. “I was a conservative my whole life, but it all changed.”