Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)
On Thursday, a high-ranking U.S. Defense Department official was subjected to questioning by a wild-eyed, wound-up extremist ... in a Senate hearing. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton first asked under Secretary of Defense Brian McKeon how many prisoners were at Guantanamo Bay during a string of terrorist events that occurred before the Gitmo detention facility was set up, suggesting that the fact that terrorism existed before then was evidence, proof even, that the prison can't serve as an Al Qaeda recruiting tool now. Then Cotton really let loose:
Islamic extremists don't need an excuse to attack us. They don't attack us for what we do, they attack us for who we are. It is not a security decision, it's a political decision based on a promise the president made on his campaign. To say that it is a security decision based on propaganda value that our enemies get from it is a pretext to justify a political decision.
In my opinion, the only problem with Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and cells there right now. We should be sending more terrorists there for further interrogation to keep this country safe. As far as I'm concerned, every last one of them can rot in hell. But as long as they don't do that, then they can rot in Guantanamo Bay.
Cotton appeared to be speaking from a fervent faith, but he
wasn't talking about reality:
Indeed, there's overwhelming evidence that Guantanamo — as a symbol of the American torture regime — helps al-Qaeda recruit.
"The longer it stays open the more cost it will have in U.S. lives," Matthew Alexander, a former US Air Force officer who interrogated suspected terrorists in Iraq, wrote in 2012.
As for "rotting in hell," a significant percentage of Guantanamo inmates over the course of the prison's existence have been found innocent of any connection to terrorism. Even now, 54 of the remaining 122 inmates have been cleared for release for the US government.
As wrong as he is, this kind of posturing has gotten Tom Cotton first into the House and now the Senate, where there is no doubt he will be bringing the crazy, the warmongering, and the disdain for facts for years, even decades, to come.
Watch the video below the fold.