To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate

Tell Congress and President Obama: We demand debate before military intervention

Congress must have a full, vigorous, and open debate before the U.S. commits to another war in the Middle East.

Why is this important?

In an address to the nation on Wednesday evening, President Obama announced that the U.S. will escalate its military campaign against ISIS (also known as ISIL, or the so-called Islamic State), to include potential military air strikes in Syria as well as Iraq. The U.S. will also deploy nearly 500 additional military advisers to Iraq. The President said that the U.S. objective is to "degrade" and ultimately "destroy" ISIS.

Earlier this week, the White House indicated that such a strategy could take upwards of three years to execute, and would include air strikes in Syria. Moving forward with this sort of military action is a huge decision -- one that will have ongoing ramifications for years to come.

Because of the broad, extended, and open-ended nature of the proposed expansion of U.S. military force in the Middle East, it is critical that before the United States moves forward with any action, Congress must take time to debate the issue. We have already seen the terrible consequences of rushing into military intervention, and it is critical that the United States not repeat that mistake again.