The first responsibility of the federal government is to keep America safe. I joined the Army after the 9/11 attacks to protect our country. Last year, I ran for the Senate partly to continue that work.
Over the last several months I've heard from countless Arkansans who are concerned with President Barack Obama's nuclear negotiations with Iran and what a deal with Iran would mean for our national security. They're right to be worried; a nuclear-armed Iran is the gravest threat facing us today.
The Obama administration's nuclear negotiations with Iran were supposed to stop Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb. From the beginning, these negotiations were an unwise gamble. Iran is not a rational or peaceful actor; it's a radical, Islamist tyranny and, according to President Obama's own State Department, is the worst state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Iran is also a lead financier and arms supplier of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, terrorist organizations dedicated to destroying Israel. Indeed, Ayatollah Khamenei recently tweeted nine reasons why Israel must be eliminated.
Further, Iran is also responsible for the killing and maiming of thousands of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. During my tour in Baghdad, Iran supplied the most advanced, most lethal roadside bombs being used against coalition forces. My soldiers and I knew that Iranian-supplied bombs were the one thing our armored vehicles couldn't withstand. All we could do was hope it wasn't our day to hit one.
My platoon was lucky; too many others were not.
Despite Iran's outlaw behavior, President Obama forged ahead with negotiations anyway. And now what began as an unwise gamble has descended into dangerous, one-sided concessions. As the March 24 negotiating deadline approaches, President Obama has suggested that he will accept a deal that allows Iran to enrich uranium and that has an expiration date. This result, according to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, would be "to move from preventing proliferation to managing it."
What's worse, President Obama plans to bypass Congress in these negotiations with Iran. The critical role of Congress in approving international agreements was clearly laid out by our founders in the Constitution to ensure that no president, whoever he or she may be, can commit America unilaterally to such binding agreements. And it's a principle upon which Democrats and Republicans had largely agreed until President Obama was elected.
But a nuclear Iran presents too great of a threat to accept. That's why last week, I, along with Sen. John Boozman and 45 other senators, wrote an open letter to Iran's leaders to inform them of the role Congress plays in approving their agreement.
Our goal is simple: to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. They needed to get this message loud and clear; they are not hearing it from the negotiators in Geneva.
This letter has been the source of some controversy, even though it simply states the basic facts of our Constitution. President Obama has been very defensive, perhaps because he knows his offer to Iran is indefensible. His indignation might be better directed, though, at the murderous ayatollahs in Teheran, not a Congress simply asserting its constitutional power and duty.
Regardless, rest assured I will never back down from either political attacks or dictators abroad. Arkansans elected me to the Senate, in part, to protect them from dangerous agreements with rogue states and to help ensure their safety. And that is what my colleagues and I intend to do.
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Tom Cotton is the junior U.S. senator for the state of Arkansas.
Editorial on 03/19/2015