Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) attempted to get the Obama administration on Tuesday to publicly state the extent to which it considers Russian “unconventional warfare” in Baltic nations as a trigger for military intervention.
Bringing up Russia’s activity in Eastern Ukraine at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Cotton asked a Pentagon official to declare “plans and positions for that kind of irregular campaign, if it were to begin, to be conducted by Russia in Estonia and Latvia”–two NATO member states.
Cotton lamented “aggressive behavior from Russian bombers or submarines” and “the alleged kidnapping of an Estonian security officer from Eastern Estonia, which has a large Russian ethnic minority, as does Eastern Latvia”–a tacit reference to the sizable Russian community in Ukraine that served, to some extent, as Moscow’s justification for its own intervention there.
Michael Lumpkin, whose official title is Assistant Secretary Of Defense For Special Operations And Low-Intensity Conflict, told Cotton that he could not discuss those plans publicly.
“That’s one we should discuss in a closed setting, if you don’t mind, sir,” Lumpkin replied.
Despite his line of questioning, Sen. Cotton, two months ago, lambasted the administration for revealing details of the US-backed Iraqi military’s plan to re-take Mosul in the fight against the Islamic State.
“If a private in Iraq had revealed this kind of planning inadvertently by leaving a plan in the channel hall of the gym, he might have faced a court-martial, but now it’s now become a matter of policy this administration is going to announce war plans in advance,” he had said at the time. “It only increases risks.”
Arguably the most far-right member of the senate on military and foreign policy issues and a darling of America’s weapons manufacturers, Cotton attempted last month to sabotage the administration’s nuclear talks with Iran by organizing an aggressive letter signed by 47 Republican senators to leaders in Tehran.
Cotton also believes that the so-called sequestration cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 must be reversed and then some on the Pentagon. He also stated last month that Washington should be spending almost $1 trillion, or roughly $400 billion more, on the world’s most cash-flush military organization, the Department of Defense.
“Our experiment with retreat must end,” he said.
In March, Cotton said that “it is time to confront Vladimir Putin,”claimed the Russian leader was emboldened to act in Ukraine by President Obama’s fail to adhere to his “red line” in Syria, and predicted that there would soon be “little green men in East Estonia and East Latvia.”
