Fact check: Image claiming to show Tom Cotton with gold bars in Iraq is false

An Instagram post claims to show Senator Tom Cotton with gold bars in Iraq, but this is false. A spokesperson for Cotton confirmed he is not in the image, which actually features a different soldier. The image has circulated widely, including on X, but a reverse image search traced it back to a Reddit post from 2003, showing two soldiers with gold bars. Cotton, who served in Iraq, enlisted in 2005, two years after the photo was taken. No credible sources support the claim that Cotton is in the image. Both Reuters and USA Today have debunked it, and Cotton's spokesperson reiterated that the photo does not depict him.