Tom Cotton Quotes

I think the primary message to the world is that the United States is going to remain the strongest military power in the world.

Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.

A major power can afford a military debacle only when it looks like a political victory.

I do not believe that diplomacy equals weakness…. If you are going to use force you better make sure that it is effective.

The generation of news by actions taken by the government becomes one weapon in a strained situation. The results, in my opinion, justify the methods we use… News generated by actions of the government as to content and timing are part of the arsenal of weaponry that a President has in application of military force and related forces to the solution of political problems, or to the application of international political pressure.

… weak nation strategy

Deterrence, of course, is all about the perception of power. It hinges on convincing adversaries that, with force, guile, or economic isolation, you can make the think twice about acting against American interests.

I don’t think that we have ever had a coherent strategy on Iraq.

Any candidate who thinks that we only need to attack ISIS from the sky, without regard to where they flourish and why, shares President Obama's view that Iran is our partner in peace.

When the Obama administration announced its 'reset' of relations with Russia in 2009, Americans never expected that it would include making Vladimir Putin the de facto U.S. ambassador to Syria in 2013.

Under Obama, we have seen the U.S. military - the most exceptional force for peace in the world - degraded, downsized, decimated and demeaned, resulting in massive international instability and potential threats to our homeland.

I can't discuss the possibility of the U.S. involvement in Syria's civil war without also talking about Benghazi.

The president has largely taken a hands-off approach in Syria and granted it as a legitimate sphere of interest to countries like Iran and like Russia. This is very bad policy, and it's going to lead to very dangerous consequences for our partners in the region, which is why so many of them are so opposed to U.S. policies.

It has been almost three years since U.S. President Barack Obama pipsqueaked on his chemical-weapons 'red line' in Syria and joined with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in the pantomime that resulted in the Sept. 27, 2013 U.N. Security Council Resolution 2118, which called on Assad to surrender his chemical weapons stockpile.

The United States is the Godfather when it establishes edicts. Others had better live up to them, or else. We have to demonstrate that. So that's what the bombing of Syria was to have demonstrated.

It could truly be the case that Vladimir Putin has miscalculated in the long term with his adventure in Syria.

But when Warren has spoken on national security, she has invariably spouted warmed-over, banal Democratic hawk tripe of the kind that she just recited about Israel and Gaza. During her Senate campaign, for instance, she issued wildly militaristic – and in some cases clearly false – statements about Iran and its nuclear program that would have been comfortable on the pages of The Weekly Standard.

It's said that Putin can't stand Hillary Clinton. I don't know that for a fact, but it certainly looks that way, but I think her approach to Russia stands up pretty well.

[Vladimir] Putin spoke unabashedly about the importance of national sovereignty in Syria, a concept apparently near and dear to his heart, unless it comes to the sovereignty of Georgia, Ukraine or any other country in which he intervenes. Then he offered his cooperation, but without making any concrete concessions at all. And he didn't have to, either. He knows what he can rely on. He has assets that are more valuable than words: He has tanks in Ukraine, fighter jets in Syria - and Barack Obama in the White House.

We believe that introducing surface-to-air missiles in Syria is going to change the balance of power on the ground. It will allow the moderate opposition to be able to neutralize the helicopters and aircraft that are dropping chemicals and have been carpet-bombing them, just like surface-to-air missiles in Afghanistan were able to change the balance of power there.

We've mismanaged going into Iraq.

Mr. Obama said that he personally told Mr. Putin to knock it off and vows to retaliate. But the Obama presidency is coming to an end and his successor still won't accept that Russia is guilty of tampering with U.S. elections. But president-elect Donald Trump is accepting the thanks of those who voted for him.

I was talking about [Donald] Trump and certain things he was saying, that he wanted to go into Iraq and just "take the oil." I said he sounded like the Corleone Family from The Godfather, you know, "Let's just get it all while we got the muscle."

ISIS has a caliphate the size of Indiana! Also, US military has been totally gutted. Can't even project power anymore.

Syria will remain a hotbed of terrorism as long as the civil war, aided and abetted by the Iranians and the Russians, continue.