Congress should debate the military involvement by the United States in battling the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS) to determine how to pay for it and how long it will last, Sen. Chris Koons told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Koons said he wanted "no part of another decade-long war in the Middle East," but maintained Congress should be discussing the details of U.S. action, as was happening on Friday in the UK where British Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament to vote on military participation in Iraq.
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"I think our first order of business has to be to turn to the broader debate. How will we pay for this war? How long will it go? We went out for elections," the Delaware Democrat said Friday.
Congress is currently in recess as members up for re-election focus on their campaigns. Before they adjourned, Congress held a bipartisan vote to "support the training equip mission" in Iraq, but since then "the challenges in the region have gotten away from us," Koons said.
"[The] threat of ISIS is real. We have to figure out how to fight them in a way that is smart, that is contained, that is focused, that is sustainable, to cut off their funding, to cut off religious support, and to cut off the flow of foreign fighters," he said.
Koons said the question was which Congress should make the decisions about the fight against ISIS.
"Would you rather have a Congress that is about to face the electorate and about to face elections vote on the authorization of use of force, or the Congress that has just been elected? We have some of our most senior senators, full committee chairs, about to retire," he said.
It was time for Congress to "re-examine the automatic year over year across the board cuts that are sequestration, that will really hollow out our military as we put them back into harm's way," Koons said, adding a debate should take place about spending on other issues as well.
"I hope in early 2015 we will get to the big conversation that we've avoided the last four years about how to deal with our structural deficits, while making our country safe," he said.
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