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Leading the effort to torpedo a US-led international agreement to curtail Iran's nuclear program is a freshman senator, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)

(Danny Johnston/AP Photo)

The concept of Congressional oversight has many virtues, but clarity and keen judgment aren't always among them.

The latest example is the supercilious letter sent by 47 Republican senators to Iran, a shallow effort to derail the negotiation over its nuclear program that devolved into another partisan agitprop from the circular firing squad known as the GOP.

And clearly, this is one time when the Senate would be best advised to zip it until it sees something that actually represents an enforceable agreement, rather than engage in the usual Obamaphobia.

The letter was authored by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), with presidential hopefuls Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rand Paul (R-Ken.) among the signatories, and it warned Iran that it shall regard "any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei."

The amateurish missive succeeded in doing little but giving the hardliners in Tehran hope that the negotiations will crumble, as their chief argument is that the United States cannot be trusted.

And if that wasn't enough bluster for one communique, Cotton's follow-up interviews made it clear that Tehran must capitulate or face military force - apparent proof that 430,000 Arkansans elected a Commander in Chief while nobody else was watching last November.

Cotton, known to New Jerseyans as the guy who voted against Hurricane Sandy relief because Arkansas "should not have to bail out the Northeast," has since been denounced by members of his own party. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said it best: "We ought to support the negotiations going on," he said, "and this effort does not do that."



But whether Cotton's letter is credible is another matter, given that its author cannot attain that standard.

He is not a "traitor" as some claim, but Cotton is a novice with pitifully shallow motives. He is a Neocon monstrosity out of central casting, someone who calls Iraq a "just and noble war," who wants to use the espionage act against journalists, and even campaigned on a baseless fear that ISIS "could infiltrate our defenseless border and attack us right here in Arkansas."

Give him this much: On Tuesday, he noted how "Israel struck Iraq's nuclear program in 1981 and they didn't reconstitute it," a rare GOP admission that the Bush Administration wasted countless lives and $1.7 trillion on a fantasy.

But above all, Cotton is man of war. He served in the Army Rangers with distinction, he is a walking, breathing casus belli on virtually every policy discussion, and one day after writing his letter - surprise - he addressed a gold-plated assembly of defense contractors.

So 46 other U.S Senators followed him into the political wood chipper.

If these talks fail, Iran must be the one that walks away, so that the other members of the P5+1 remain united and maintain the sanctions that have brought that nation to its knees. If the U.S. causes negotiations to fail -- because their war profiteers and their Congressional enablers undermine the president's diplomatic authority -- the UN Security Council breaks ranks, lifts sanctions, and Cotton earns his place in infamy.

It's up to Congress whether it prefers war and political posturing to a verifiable agreement. The wrong decision could ostracize the U.S., create another nuclear player in the Middle East, and throw the world into further turmoil.

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