U.S. Rep. Tom Cole introduced legislation this week authorizing the use of military force against Islamic State militants.
Under the bill to fight the group known as ISIS, there wouldn't be any geographic restrictions on the U.S. military, or a prohibition on sending U.S. ground troops into the region.
During his video response to President Obama's State of the Union address this week, Cole said the president didn't lay out a strategy to defeat ISIS.
“This is a very dangerous enemy that's risen while he was president that's taken large parts of Iraq and Syria, and is launching terrorist attacks around the world as we saw in Paris, and inciting terrorism in our own country as we saw in San Bernardino,” Cole said.
Cole said the time has passed to initiate debate, and Congress has a responsibility to weigh in. He also said the conversation should be taking pace in the House and Senate to preserve the legislative branch's constitutional authority to declare war.
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