Tom Cotton: Put Iraq out of your mind. Bombing Iran would take just 'several days'

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton: losing his grip on reality, or lying shamelessly? It's not clear which conclusion would be more unflattering to Cotton in light of his claim that bombing Iran's nuclear facilities would be just like when then-President Bill Clinton bombed Iraq for four days in the late 1990s. It's just silly to think about the Iraq War of the 2000s, according to Cotton—silly, or a lie pushed by President Obama—"the president is trying to make you think it would be 150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq and that’s simply not the case." Simply not the case!

“It would be something more along the lines of what President Clinton did in December 1998 during Operation Desert Fox. Several days air and naval bombing against Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction facilities for exactly the same kind of behavior. For interfering with weapons inspectors and for disobeying Security Council resolutions. All we’re asking is that the president simply be as tough as in the protection of America’s national security interest as Bill Clinton was.”

In short, Tom Cotton, 2015: "Several days air and naval bombing ... "

Donald Rumsfeld, 2003, on the prospect of war with Iraq: "It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

Uh-huh. About that ...

If the war in Iraq had ended after the six months that Rumsfeld thought was so unlikely, maybe Cotton could fool Americans into thinking that bombing Iran now wouldn't have broader implications. But we know how Iraq went, and it'll probably be at least a few more years before voters are ready to once again be sold the idea that war in the Middle East will be a breeze.

Support the Iran deal: Call your senator now.