Trump right to take steps to 'deter' military action by Iran's 'outlaw regime', Cotton says

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Sen. Tom Cotton says Trump administration is taking prudent steps to deter Iranian aggression

The outlaw regime in Iran has been waging a low-level war against the U.S. for the past 40 years, says Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The current Iranian government is an "outlaw regime" and President Trump is making the right moves to deter the Middle East nation from taking direct military action against the US.

That's the assessment made Tuesday by Senate Armed Services Committee member Tom Cotton on "Outnumbered Overtime."

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"There can be no doubt that we've seen serious, credible and increased reporting of threats from Iran across the Middle East - whether [from] their own forces like the Revolutionary Guard corps or through their proxies like the rebel groups they support in places like Yemen, or paramilitary forces in Iraq," Sen. Cotton, R-Ark., said.

Cotton praised the Trump administration's decision to move the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to the region, calling it a "prudent" move intended to deter military action and not instigate it.

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Citing the fact Iran or its proxies were blamed for attacks that damaged four commercial vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last week, Cotton said that America's actions in return are not ones "preparing for military operations" but instead meant to "deter Iran from making a grave miscalculation."

"Iran is the adversary that started the escalation and there is not a question of intelligence assessments or estimates," Cotton, an Army veteran and Bronze Star recipient, said.

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"We shouldn't forget that Iran is an outlaw regime," Cotton said. "It is a revolutionary cause that has hijacked a nation-state."

He added that Iran "has been waging a kind of low-level war against the U.S. for 40 years," reminding host Harris Faulkner of the Reagan administration's decision to "re-flag" oil tankers in the Persian Gulf to deter action by Iran in the late 1980s.