Sen. Cotton: ‘Nine Years Ago Iran Was Trying To Kill Me And My Soldiers’

07.16.2015 | News | Jerome Hudson |

The more we learn about Obama’s Iran nuke deal, the worse the thing seems.

And when it comes to the economic sanctions, that took more than ten years to be put in place, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has a very personal explanation as to why it’s a very bad idea to have them lifted.

“Nine years ago, Iran was trying to kill me, and to kill my soldiers,” Senator Cotton said on CNN Wednesday. Cotton was active duty from 2005-2009, at the height of the Iraq war.

Indeed, Iran helped fight America’s forces and furnished support during the Iraq war in several ways including militarily and economically.

Here’s a detailed description of Iran’s military support to Iraq against America’s military, courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations:

The Quds Force, a special operations wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, is accused by U.S. officials of furnishing Shiite militias (USA Today) with explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), or roadside bombs, as well as rocket-propelled grenades and Katyusha rockets. Specifically, the United States alleges that it supports, trains, and finances militias like the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of one of Iraq’s most religious Shiite parties whose base is in southern Iraq. “The Quds Force is to the Shiite militias as al-Qaeda in Iraq is to the Sunni insurgent groups,” writes Rick Francona, a retired military intelligence official and former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, on MSNBC.com. Some experts estimate as many as thirty-thousand Iranian operatives may be in Iraq. In October 2007 the U.S. State Department designated the Revolutionary Guard and the Quds Force supporters of terrorism, and imposed sweeping economic sanctions on both.

Here are details on Iran’s economic support to Iraq against the U.S. military:

Iran has emerged as one of Iraq’s largest trading partners, with Iranian exports to Iraq topping $1.8 billion (PDF) in 2006, according to the Iranian Custom Administration, up from $800 million in 2004. A free-trade zone in southern Iraq has brought a surge of Iranian goods into shops in Basra, including kerosene and cooking gas. Anoushiravan Ehteshami, a professor of international relations at Britain’s University of Durham, says southern Iraq is the only place outside of Iran where Iranian currency—the rial—is used. “That demonstrates Tehran’s economic influence on its neighbor,” Ehteshami told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Iran is constructing a highway to link Basra with Iranian commercial centers across the border. Tehran also plans to build a branch of its national bank in Baghdad and provide assistance for Iraq’s economic reconstruction, according to Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq.

And that doesn’t count Iran’s near-nonstop support and funding in recent years of terrorism around the Middle East, particularly against Israel.

That’s why Democrats, Republicans, America’s allies, Gulf state leaders, and everybody in between are slamming Obama’s Iran nuke deal.

Ted Cruz put it best calling the agreement “the jihadist stimulus deal.”

Jerome Hudson

Managing Editor

Jerome Hudson has written for numerous national outlets, including The Hill, National Review, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was recognized as one of Florida’s emerging stars, having been included in the list “25 Under 30: Florida’s Rising Young Political Class.” Hudson is a Savannah, Ga. native who currently resides in Florida.

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