Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) mocked the concept of civilian control of the military, and defended the recent dropping of the “Mother of all Bombs” in Afghanistan—a weapon that had never before been used in combat.
During a Senate Armed Services Committee oversight hearing of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) on Thursday, Cotton made the case for giving military operators free rein to use whatever weapons they deem necessary—regardless of what elected officials’ concerns might be.
He went on to describe the fallout from the dropping of the Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB) on an ISIS compound in Afghanistan last month as a “media controversy.”
The MOAB—also known as the Mother of all Bombs—is the largest conventional weapon ever deployed on a battlefield in human history.
General Raymond Thomas, commander of SOCOM testified Thursday that the decision to drop the bomb was made solely by Gen. John Nicholson, the head of US forces in Afghanistan.
Sen. Cotton noted that “the Secretary of Defense, nor the National Security Advisor, nor the President” were involved in the determination.
“Deciding what kind of ordinance to employ, would you say that’s a decision for the commanders in the field to make?” Cotton asked, leading Gen. Thomas. “They don’t need to get approval from anyone 8,000 miles away in Washington?” he added.
“I think that could actually cause great risk to force,” Thomas responded.
Cotton didn’t specify if he believed the use of nuclear weapons should be left up to military operators on the ground, too. Currently that power is vested solely in the President of the United States.
Gen. Thomas defended the MOAB’s use during the hearing, claiming it saved the lives of US soldiers who would have, otherwise, been forced to engage the ISIS compound more directly.
The 21,000-pound bomb was developed in 2003, and it reportedly has a blast range of one mile.
Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon official under President George W. Bush, told The Intercept, the weapon was kept on the shelf “due to collateral damage concerns.”
“It was decided that the civilian harm greatly outweighed the military gain,” he said.
Fox News went to the site of the blast to review the damage. The rightwing news outlet documented “vivid” devastation: “skeletons of burned cars, houses holed and guttered.”
The detonation shattered windows in homes miles away, causes the ground to shake, and reportedly resulted in temporary hearing loss for civilians nearby.
Concerns about the MOAB’s use, however, were not to be found anywhere in Thursday’s hearing. Instead, Sen. Cotton concluded his questioning with a joke about the bomb’s moniker.
“I hope all the rest of our bombs are overcoming the loss of their mother?” the Senator asked with a chuckle.
“ I think they’re over their grieving,” the general responded.
