Sen. Tom Cotton: Military strikes on Iran would work

Susan Page | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Sen. Tom Cotton: Military strike on Iran could work Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton discusses the ongoing debate over Iran nuclear negotiations and Congress' role.

WASHINGTON — Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a leader of Republican resistance to the emerging Iranian nuclear deal, predicted Thursday that U.S. military strikes on Iran could cripple its nuclear capabilities without leading to a full-scale war.

"The United States military has amazing capabilities," Cotton told Capital Download, USA TODAY's weekly video newsmaker series. He said past Israeli air force attacks on nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria and President Obama's own statements about a "military option" indicate that "air and naval bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities would in fact work."

He likened the option to Operation Desert Fox, the four-day bombing campaign President Clinton ordered in 1998 for Iraq's refusal to cooperate with international weapons inspectors. "That's what military action would look like if we had to take military action against Iran," Cotton said.

Cotton, himself a veteran of the Iraq War, dismissed any comparisons to the predictions of a short conflict, proved wrong, by then-vice president Dick Cheney and others before the invasion of Iraq. "There's a whole range of military action that the United States military is capable of providing to the commander in chief to achieve our national strategic objectives," he said.

Obama has cautioned about the consequences of turning to military action rather than diplomacy toward Iran. "We can bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, thereby starting another war in the Middle East and setting back Iran's program by a few years," the president said last week. "Do you really think that this verifiable deal, if fully implemented, backed by the world's major powers, is a worse option than the risk of another war in the Middle East?"

Cotton called that "a false choice" and described the framework agreement as little more than "a list of dangerous White House concessions."

At 37, Cotton is the youngest member of the Senate and one of the newest, sworn into office in January after one term in the House. He sparked a furor last month by drafting an open letter to the leaders of Iran, signed by a total of 47 Republican senators, warning that an agreement negotiated by Obama could be reversed "with the stroke of a pen" by a new president.

Former secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in a previous interview on Capital Download, called the letter "outrageous" and suggested it was the work of a "brand-new senator" who "feels he has to make his name."

Cotton bristled at that. "It's not really a matter of how long I've been in the Senate or how long anyone else has been working in government. It's a matter of who's right and who's wrong," he said. "Secretary Albright helped preside over the agreement with North Korea that led North Korea to become a nuclear state in just 12 years after that agreement."

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is close to getting a veto-proof majority for a bill that would give the Senate the power to delay the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran while lawmakers reviewed the agreement, Cotton said. The committee is slated to vote next week on the measure, which is opposed by the White House.

Cotton said the bill has gotten a boost from an unlikely source: New York Sen. Charles Schumer, poised to become the Senate's Democratic leader next year. "Sen. Schumer and I don't often agree on matters, but one area where we do usually agree is supporting a strong U.S.-Israeli alliance," he said. Schumer's endorsement and his leadership position "probably will make a difference in getting more Democrats to support the constitutional prerogatives of the Congress."

Follow @SusanPage on Twitter. See more of the interview with Tom Cotton on 'Capital Download' at 8:30 a.m. Sunday on WUSA9 and live-streamed on www.WUSA9.com.