US Republican Senator Tom Cotton is facing severe criticism from the public after bombastically claiming that the US would win a war against Iran in just “two strikes.”
While speaking to Margaret Hoover for the aptly named show ‘Firing Line,’ the Arkansas senator said a war with Iran would not drag on for decades like the failed war with its neighbor, Iraq. Instead, he claimed it would end after the “first strike and last strike.”
READ MORE: US war with Iran would be a disaster with ripple effects that ‘could last decades’
Cotton went on to claim that while he’s not an advocate for war, he wanted to warn the nation that any provocation against US interests would be met with a “furious response.”
“I don’t advocate military action against Iran. I’m simply delivering the message that if Iran were to attack the United States, it would be a grave miscalculation on their part and there would be a furious response,” he said.
Viewers took to Twitter to express their dismay at the comments, and claimed Cotton is “dangerously delusional” for thinking the US could start and finish a war with the nation of 81 million people (more than twice the population of Iraq) in two strikes.
Cotton’s comments come amid escalating tensions with Iran, after Washington deployed a US carrier strike group to the Gulf region in response to what the administration called "troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" in Tehran.
Tehran has given world powers 60 days to resolve issues with the US or it will renege on its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal. President Trump withdrew from the deal last year and re-imposed sanctions on the Gulf state. If China, Russia and Europe can’t protect Iran, it has vowed to start enriching uranium to a higher level.
Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.