Cotton's Bankrupt Militarism

Tom Cotton likes to talk about Andrew Jackson, but his foreign policy is all John Bolton.

Sam Goldman wrote an interesting response to Tom Cotton’s recent speech at the Reagan Library:

Yet the speech was also an act of intentional division. On trade, criminal justice, and, above all, foreign policy, Cotton made his now-familiar case against libertarian influences in the GOP. Demanding a general revival of toughness, Cotton even ventured to criticize Trump: The First Step Act, which eased standards for release and lowered sentencing requirements for some categories of federal crime, was the worst mistake of his presidency, Cotton charged.

If Cotton’s speech is any indication of where the Republican Party is headed, it is safe to say that the party’s foreign policy views are bound to get even worse in the future. The foreign policy section was filled with the usual bromides about peace through strength, but it also contained some predictably appalling stab-in-the-back claims and cheerleading for unnecessary war that we have come to expect from Cotton and others like him.

Cotton declared, “our warriors have never—never—lost a war, they’ve only had politicians squander their victories.” This is a convenient story that militarists at home like to tell because it allows them to avoid responsibility for supporting the continuation of unwinnable wars. If Cotton had had his way, U.S. forces would still be in Afghanistan getting ready for yet another fighting season in the 21st year of the war. The inability to acknowledge when a war has been lost is one of the principal defects of Cotton’s hardline worldview, and his trigger-happy eagerness to start and join new wars is another.