Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday urged caution and a reassertion of congressional authority in response to President Trump's Thursday airstrike on Syrian regime targets.

"I do not believe ... the president simply has the authority to launch missiles," Sanders told NBC's Chuck Todd in an interview on Meet the Press. "I think he has got to come to the United States Congress. I think he has got to explain to us what his long-term goals are."

"Chuck, let me just say this: Maybe the most important vote that I have ever cast in my life as a member of Congress was against the war in Iraq," Sanders continued. "When we get sucked into a war, we do not know the unintended consequences. It is easier to get into a war than it is to get out of a war, as we have learned now over the last 15 years in the Middle East."

Sanders also issued a statement in which he warned "these strikes could lead to the United States once again being dragged back into the quagmire of long-term military engagement in the Middle East." Watch his Meet the Press comments below. Bonnie Kristian