Happens when america retreats from the region and we dont play of the role of posing a balance of power and when we let the countrys fight it out between themselves. It is not just our interest in allies and our interest in allies like jordan and israel but it is because this is throughout syria and turkey, and isis is trying to aggressively recruit United States citizens to join. It is believed that the weapons came from the turkish government. Senator cotton again, i have not seen other reports, so i cant comment on that. I did ask about if there was a mistake if we had a residual force agreement, and there was the agreement on blaming maliki on that. Why couldnt we have forced an agreement, why was that completely squandered . What was your view on that and could we have done something differently in 2011 and how do you feel as someone who served in iraq or someone who has finger on the pulse of how the military feels . Senator cotton i put responsibility chiefly with barack obama and Hillary Clinton. This was largely about immunity for our troops serving in iraq. Every time we have a status Enforcement Agreement, or maliki or iraqi officials or brought to this, they wouldnt agree. We have status Enforcement Agreement we have troops around the world and the Bush Administration had successfully negotiated several status Enforcement Agreements. This is because bush was committed to winning in iraq. He made plenty of missteps especially in the early days. But he decided to stay at the table until they had brokered an agreement. Barack obama did not, so as soon as the same objection was raised, Barack Obama Obama and Hillary Clinton packed up their bags so they could not do anything more about it. As president of the United States and secretary of state one of your primary responsibilities is to develop good working relationships with leaders all around the world to protect our security interests. Mike morel, the former Deputy Director of the cia, said the group of which we fought in iraq in the middle part of the last decade and defeated in 2007 and 2008 was largely eliminated in 2011, that without that kind of residual force, and without being able to provide stability and training to iraqi forces, iran and iraq were able to regroup and create a civil war in syria, so they emerged not as a terrorist group but as a terrorist state. Again, not all of this was predictable, it was predicted by very many people. It is possible that if we had not removed the troops, we would have fewer troops there and we might end up having them. Thank you senator cotton for being here today. I was really intrigued that you mentioned ukraine, because it was an area that i have studied for the last year or so ever since it has become relevant. You said that we should be arguing to increase their weapons and some politicians within the Ukrainian Parliament have suggested that this would be helpful if they were adopted into nato officially instead of just being a nato ally. Would you be for Something Like that . Obviously, it has to be approved by nato in itself, but just to senator cotton i am certainly open to nato membership for ukraine in the longterm. In the immediate term, there is more active fighting going on within the ukraine borders and in large parts of eastern ukraine, so the more immediate focus should be things like providing the Ukrainian Army with weapons so that they can defend themselves against the Russian Military and russian artillery, providing them better intelligence support, providing them with better logistics support. They need more transparency in ukraines government, but i do think there is a group of leaders now committed towards turning towards the west. The United States needs to continue to put pressure on russia and i was pleased to see that the major European Partners would extend an amendment to the Defense Authorization act that would upgrade the cannons on our strikers in germany and strengthen the signal tube Vladimir Putin that we will not take that kind of aggression, as well as extending our forces into other countries. It would be a message and that ukraine is stronger. In the longterm, nato membership is something we should consider carefully for ukraine and georgia and other aspiring members of the warsaw pact. Thank you. Senator cotton, the mainstream proisrael lobby would like to maintain the standard that support for israel in the United States is basically a bipartisan measure. With recent changes in policy from the obama administration, as well as moves taken by Speaker Boehner to invite prime and asked her netanyahu who to speak, you have members of congress not attending or boycotting that event, and many believe that americas support to israel has become a more partisan issue between republicans and democrats. Would you speak to that and the nature of americas support of israel changing . Do you think it will affect the vote of the jewish groups . Senator cotton i would certainly like to see white said widespread support for israel, a good example would be legislation in the house. About two years ago, we proposed legislation for israel against iran, and it got 400 votes. Many people say that congress is the bedrock of our relationship with israel. Not this particular state department, but over time, it changes, because often times various administrations have tried to put some distance between our relationship with israel but we remain steadfast in congress because the American People remain supportive of the americanisrael relationship because they remain supportive of israel. It is the home of their people but also for most of arrogance most americans, they want to stand up for the only constitutional democracy of the region that defends the rights of all of its citizens, its economy is based on free market economy, and it is our closest Security Partner in the region. If you look at Public Opinion polls of the last 25 years, you would see support for israel has remained the same among independents and republicans so to the extent that you had some democrats boycotting Prime Minister netanyahus speech, and the president trying to put daylight, as he claims, between america and israel, i dont think it is a healthy thing, i dont think that is good, america and israel are strongest when we are working much more closely together. One reason is because of israels geopolitical location. To the extent that anybody in the region doesnt think that israel can count on the United Statess support, that means that it has to be more aggressive on it support. We dont want our allies, like israel, or like japan, to have to freelance anyway. We are going to have to work as close as we did over the last several decades. That is why it is important to maintain strong bipartisan support for a u. S. Israel alliance. What do you think the reagan and george w. Bush support of this, what do think obamas main reason would be creating friction between israelis and americans . Senator cotton no doubt, personally, he has a bad relationship with Prime Minister netanyahu, so part of it is related to his irans policy iran policy. He knows that israel is the Company Country that is against iran, and that is because of the nuclear arms race. He also knows that Prime Minister netanyahu is a forceful and eloquent critic against iran. It is remarkable that the president has come into office with a grand strategy to remake our relationship structure, and it appears to have been successful. This is after we have brought america and i ran together again. Thank you. The nuclear deal with iran has focused mostly on iran just harnessing Nuclear Power by itself. This is exclusive from Irans Nuclear capability. This is a litmus test for a countrys nuclear capabilities. Senator cotton yes, and this is bad policy habits by the president. This is in part because the president is so determined to get a deal of any kind. We largely excluded any negotiations about their Ballistic Missiles. The only reason they need able as stick missile with an intercontinental range is because they want to be able to threaten the United States and deter us from protecting our interests and protecting our allies within the region. This should not have been a part of the negotiations and it should have been a prerequisite for negotiations. Is there any reason that the senate is not addressing this themselves, independent of the executive . Doesnt it look like we have our tail between her legs . Our legs . They have so much leverage over us, it kind of makes it looks like we have the lower hand. Senator cotton i believe we should, i believe the senate should be insisting that we put our Ballistic Missiles program on the table to stop regional aggression. These are policy decisions that are largely in the president s hands. There will be a time for debate if and when a final question is reached, and that will play into the heart of that debate. One of the reasons that americans object to the ayatollah having a Nuclear Capability is because they are not a normal country. Normal countries dont take hostages and dont threaten the administration of israel or try to undermine every adversary they have in the region. Most countries dont sponsor terrorism. Japan and germany are Nuclear Threshold states. Not many people lose sleep over them at night because they are constitutional democracies. If and when there is a final agreement, we will have to determine that based on the nature of the iranian regime. We will also have to decide whether that agreement will be acceptable to most americans, as i suspected wont be. There was [indiscernible] and forced the nsa . Senator cotton i was against this, and i was against creating a gap before this. Moreover this was a solution in search of a problem. There is not a single instance of potential abuses in the nsas Data Collection program. I have personally havent visited with a few dozen men and women who run the program. There is not a single incident of unfair fighting within the program. Your privacy is much more at risk because of your personal card with a library or a Grocery Store than it is with the nsa or with anything the nsa was doing. It was, however, a critical truly critical tool. Furthermore, we have a sixmonth transition. Sixmonth transition period. We will see, i hope they can. When you are dealing with a critical counterterrorist tool that wants to create an attack on the United States, i dont that we should go on a hope or a hypothetical. We should wait until there is a demonstrated capability to replace that program. In regards to the expiration of those [indiscernible] senator cotton they were expiring any way, and he simply prolonged that debate now that they have been five but whether the usa freedom act were was going to be move forward on one date or another, i would have opposed it. To the extent that americans believe it did, it was due to a result of misrepresentation. A recent cnn poll said that 66 of americans wanted it reauthorize. The program merely collected numbers of calls, and a time as the nature of the call, and no vital information. It merely assembled the dots and if the dots needed to be connected. In the case of an iran deal, would there be a flood of new oil into the world market and under ideal market conditions, with this lower the price of oil . Would that be in americas interest . Senator cotton if consummated, it is likely to reduce or eliminate sanctions very quickly, and that will lead to more oil exports from iran and that will lead to lower prices as well. Lower prices are better for the american consumer, but not at the risk of giving iran tens of millions of dollars in revenue. I strongly disagree with what the treasury secretary said that it would be used to build hospitals are schools or roads because that could have been used for the last couple of decades. But this is apparently going to happen in using iranian and has below troops in syria and they are going to use it to try to kill americans and trying to kill jews around the world which they have in doing for the past 35 years. Senator, you had mentioned estonia, latvia, and the possibility of a hybrid war there, do you think under the current administration, if that were to happen, we would be forced into nato agreements, or would the administration pull back from that . Senator cotton the real challenge that we face from estonia and latvia, is that it is not going to be hundreds of tanks rolling across the floor across the plains, it is going to be cyber warfare and special forces not wearing a russian uniforms and working with russian language allies in estonia and latvia who view it in their economic or personal interests to try to create the same kind of ongoing or frozen conflict in those areas. So that is a new challenge that not only the United States but ukraine faces. We will continue to see them conduct exercises in estonia and latvia and continue to co nfront russia and to make it abundantly clear that we will not accept the presence of little green a man in nato allies. It is clear that we dont have a strategy in syria so with that in mind as a policy maker, have you heard of anyone having a comprehensive strategy there and do you have any thoughts on what to do . Senator cotton the best thing to do is to get a time machine and go back to 2011. Not only to go back on the own term on that time frame and to look to a sod to stop that and to free the Syrian People under in oppressive regime an oppressive regime. But today, there are groups that are becoming extremists. There are still plenty of groups who are not extremists. There are often times under resourced and they have taken great casualties. At a minimum, we should be taking the fight to islam it state the fight of Islamic State to iraq and syria. At a minimum, we shouldnt be letting the Islamic State control large swaths of syrian territory, if only because giving them of that base of operations effectively prevents us from prosecuting them against crimes within iraq. [indiscernible] senator cotton i have kind of supported a nofly zone in syria. This would be similar to the 1990s iraqi no fly zone. It would be important to destroy their helicopters, and that is the one key that right now the Syrian Regime has over its own population. I do think we have to establish some kind of air control within the come within the country and i think we should have done that a long time ago. I and many others thought that would have been the best course of action. A common and compelling narrative is that china outmaneuvered the United States, germany, the u. K. , and other nations to join this bank. President obama said there are more nuances, so how do you feel about this . Senator cotton if china wanted to create an Infrastructure Bank that was focused on investment and developing Asian Countries i think it might have been a better u. S. Policy for us to recognize that we would have a strong interest. Many Asian Countries are our allies and our trading partners. We could have worked with china to shape the roles of those institutions as well as so many other International Institutions since the cold war period . I think there is still opportunity to reconsider. I have a question about the chinese [indiscernible] when it north korea hacked a u. S. Movie studio, there were sanctions against the north korean regime. Are these sanctions that you would advocate for with china . It appears to be a serious problem but no punitive action ever seems to be taken. Senator cotton first, it is important to get all the facts. Sometimes cyberattacks are masked and sometimes difficult to follow and we have to assess that, but we have to have a mindset shift about cyber politics that i still think we have not fully reached. We have to fully recognize them as real attacks against the United States and their interests. What happens to a company like sony . No one thought when those planes flew into the World Trade Center that that was an active property vandalism and that the owners of those buildings needed to respond to that. That was an act of war. Just like a private institution is attacked, it is the governments responsibility to protect the security of americans and american institutions. Just like somebody goes out and robs a bank, we dont go and blame the bank, we go and send out police ofificers and find them. This kind of attack will not be tolerated. In iraq specifically, how to think the u. S. Should confront the problem of providing air power to shiite militias . Senator cotton airpower for what . Shiite militias, how do you think that senator cotton we shouldnt we collaborating with iranianbacked shiite militias. The head of the command testified after the battle of tikrit that we had begun to withdraw, and we shouldnt do so because it is only going to ferment more widespread sectarian strife, especially when those coalitions move into and bar into anbar. It also becomes a paper tiger just like iran couldnt defeat its adversary of