Tom Cotton, Arkansas’s freshman U.S.
senator, made clear this weekend his support for
ramping up aggressive war on ISIS and
America’s enemies in the Middle East — calling Iran a
“mortal enemy” and pushing the need to
remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He also said
Americans “have plenty to be afraid and
frustrated about” due to terrorism and the $17 trillion
national debt.
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U.S. Senator Tom Cotton |
In a half-hour interview taped nearly a
month ago but just aired Friday on AETN, Arkansas’s PBS
affiliate, Cotton kept the half-hour
interview centered on the Middle East.
He allowed a couple of minutes
specifying he believes federal highway funds should be limited
to building and maintaining the nation’s
interstate system, and not spent on state or local
projects, such as funding a Los Angeles
or New York subway system.
He spent one sentence expressing
concern that Americans haven’t seen wage increases in a
couple of decades.
What he did NOT discuss, nor seem
interested in bringing up, were the following issues which
are torturing Americans, and which we’ve
discussed in past columns:
1) While spending most of his interview
promoting aggressive war in the Middle East, Cotton —
who served in both Iraq and
Afghanistan, receiving a Bronze Star — didn’t even mention the
750,000 active military and veterans
suffering from TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD (Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder), the tragic
brain injuries caused by military conflict and leading to a
continuing plague of suicides.
2) The over $1 trillion college loan debt
which is frustrating our young, and even abusing our
elderly.
3) The $1 trillion credit card debt, which
is increasing as banks turn more to subprime lending, not
only for credit cards, but auto loans,
and, yes, mortgages.
4) The $2.3 trillion estimated need for
U.S. infrastructure.
5) The gluttonous growth of the
nontransparent (as in secret) derivatives investment industry,
considered the chief cause for the
economic meltdown of 2007-08. International banking
analysts are expressing consistent
concern that the derivatives racket, at a then-high of over
$600 trillion in 2007, was also that
high in 2014, and expected to “boom” through 2019.
Analysts are also extremely wary of the
growing private debt worldwide.
6) The skewed employment figures from
government, ignoring the fact that 50 million Americans
are on food stamps, 7 million Americans
want full-time jobs but can’t find them. And while
part-time jobs are being created, the
country’s seeing no increase in incomes (except for top
execs) and no benefits for part-time
workers (many working two jobs or more) and their
families.
7) A bubble stock market, fed not by
executives investing in their corporations to create real jobs
with rising employee incomes and
benefits, but buying back their companies’ stocks to enrich
their own and stockholders’ incomes.
8) The conservative assault on state and
local levels against women and minority rights, primarily
coming from Cotton’s Republican Party.
9) The now-turned America from a democracy
to an oligarchy.
10) America’s nuclear-weapons buildup
leading to Russia and China’s adding to their nuclear
arsenals.
The Neo-Con Line
Cotton’s position of concentrating
dialogue on aggressive war in the Middle East is essentially
Washington’s neoconservative,
exceptionalist obsession – basically in line with the Millionaire
Congress, Millionaire president,
military-industrial complex, Wall Street and corporate media
conglomerates endlessly pushing the
racket of endless war. It’s sucking the budget of any
chance to fund solutions to America’s
true needs, but instead sends taxpayers’ money to the
weapons industry and the bankers who
back it.
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“Arkansas Week” veteran newsman Steve Barnes |
Cotton stressed Iran as a “mortal enemy”
that’s supporting global terrorism. But he didn’t seem
particularly concerned about leaders in
Saudi Arabia who support terrorism, or the Egyptian
military dictator who toppled a
democratically elected government and is stifling dissent – even
though veteran newsman Steve Barnes
called him on that in the interview — since Cotton
considers them U.S. allies.
Barnes also suggested to him twice that
the Middle East quagmire has no easy solution. Cotton,
a member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee and Special Committee on Intelligence,
would respond by dropping names of
foreign leaders and statistics, emphasizing that the U.S.
must work with allies to defeat radical
Muslims.
At one point he said if radical Muslims
make up one percent of the 1 billion Muslim world, that
means their numbers are “in the
millions”. He then later summarized his view by saying if the
U.S. increases its military effort
against those millions, it means “we win and they lose”. He
wasn’t clear about how the U.S. would
work with allies to do that, nor did he mention
anywhere in his interview dealing with
Russia and China.
Through the half-hour interview, he did
mention a couple of times the $17 trillion national
debt, yet offered no detailed
explanation of how to cut or eliminate it.
But most of all — in offering his
neocon view — Cotton obviously wants you to be afraid of
being blown up by terrorists in the
United States, and not concern yourself with making enough
money to support a family, pay drug and
hospital bills, work your way out of being mired in
credit debt, nor think about the young
swamped with student loan and credit debt that’s
keeping them from buying homes and
starting families.
AETN’s interview with Cotton, on the
program “Arkansas Week”, is not yet posted online.
(This column first ran in reality: a world of views.)
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