Cotton pushes for mightier military as deterrent

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton called for more military spending Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, while appearing on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington, D.C.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton called for more military spending Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, while appearing on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON -- America needs to spend more on its military to deter attacks, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton said Thursday.

The Arkansas Republican spoke Thursday on a panel titled "Why Should America Go to War?" at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference held just outside Washington.

The event draws thousands of conservatives to strategize and hear from potential presidential candidates and rising political stars. Cotton last spoke at the conference in 2013 on a similar topic.

Cotton told the dozens of people gathered in a packed room that the best way to avoid war is to be prepared and willing to fight one.

"I'm deeply concerned that we are increasingly unprepared to fight a war to defend our interests around the world," he said.

Cotton said he plans to advocate for substantial increases to defense spending, as the Senate considers the budget over the next few weeks.

"There is no item on which we could spend our federal taxpayer dollars and get a more important return than our military and our intelligence professionals and our diplomacy, all of which is designed to keep America safe and strong without having to go to war in the first place," he said.

In his recently released budget, President Barack Obama recommended ending spending caps known as sequestration that both the president and Congress agreed to in 2013 and spending $561 billion on defense, a $38 billion increase over the amount mandated by the cap.

Cotton said after his speech he'd like to go further. Cotton said he prefers the recommendation from the National Defense Panel, which said former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' 2012 recommendation of at least $610 billion should be the "absolute minimum."

He said that should be the minimum because it was recommended before Russia invaded the Ukraine and the Islamic State developed. The National Defense Panel was created by Congress to review the Defense Department's study of strategy and priorities.

Others on the panel -- Heritage Foundation's James Jay Carafano, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., --largely agreed with Cotton's premise.

Bolton said if America wants peace, it should prepare for war.

"You start with the principle of deterrence," he said. "We need a president who believes in American exceptionalism, who believes that American strength internationally is a positive force for peace, stability and commerce and he believes that ultimately only the United States itself can protect its interests."

The panel moderator, Fox News security analyst K.T. McFarland, noted that the "tribes" of the Republican Party don't all agree on how the United States should handle foreign defense. Some think the country should work to make the world safe for democracy; others say America should bring its troops home and not get involved, she said.

"We don't all agree, but we all agree that there is no more important issue than the nation's defense at this time," she said.

Cotton said many people around the world don't believe Obama will go to war, which he said makes the country weak.

"If we are willing to fight a war and we're prepared to fight a war, then war is much less likely to occur, because our allies will defer to us knowing that we take their security interests into account, our enemies will be fearful of us knowing that we will confront and defeat them in any manner," he said. "That's what America lacks right now, and that's why when you look around the world you see chaos and disorder, not order and not peace and not an America that is strong and influential."

Metro on 02/27/2015

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