Army General Trashes Tom "Male Michele Bachmann" Cotton

With Michele Bachmann no longer in Congress - although she continues to utter batshit crazy remarks - it increasingly seems that not ready for prime time Senator Tom Cotton is the new Bachmann substitute.  All he has to do is get down the crazy eye stares to complete the package.  If he wants to perfect his village idiot persona, he can bleach his hair blond so that we can call him a blond bimbo as well.  Retired Army Major Gen. Paul D. Eaton is none too happy with Cotton and while stopping short of calling him a traitor suggested that he was leading a "mutiny."  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the general's trashing of Cotton.  Here are excerpts:

The open letter to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran signed by 47 senators and instigated by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was a stunning breach of protocol. One so outrageous that my former colleagues at the New York Daily News dubbed the signers “traitors.” While it is indeed a slap in the face of President Obama and an affront to the presidency, I’m not sure I would go that far, especially since Cotton is an Army veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. So, I turned to retired Major Gen. Paul D. Eaton for perspective. He wouldn’t say Cotton and Co. were “traitors,” either. He had a better word.

“I would use the word mutinous,” said Eaton, whose long career includes training Iraqi forces from 2003 to 2004. He is now a senior adviser to VoteVets.org. . . . they defied the chain of command in what could be construed as an illegal act.” 

Eaton certainly had stern words for Cotton. “What Senator Cotton did is a gross breach of discipline, and especially as a veteran of the Army, he should know better,” . . .
to directly engage a foreign entity, in this way, undermining the strategy and work of our diplomats and our Commander in Chief, strains the very discipline and structure that our foreign relations depend on, to succeed.”

 The consequences of Cotton’s missive were plainly apparent to Eaton. “The breach of discipline is extremely dangerous, because undermining our diplomatic efforts, at this moment, brings us another step closer to a very costly and perilous war with Iran,” he said. . . .  “I think Senator Cotton recognizes this, and he simply does not care,”. . . . 

“I expect better from the men and women who wore the uniform,” Eaton said of Cotton. And the American people deserve better from the Senate.

Mutineers are typically court martialed and imprisoned - an idea I find attractive for Mr. Cotton.  And should his stunt lead us to war with Iran, he should be forced to resign his seat in the Senate and go to the front - preferably leading at the front of a charge like the civil war generals (who suffered a very high mortality rate).  Perhaps all 47 Republicans should have to do the same.  Just saying  . . .