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The United States has been a major military player in the Middle East for decades. Whether that is in the best interests of the U.S. and the world has been a source of controversy for just as long.

The focus of this debate is the U.S. bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But that's just part of a broader discussion in a region that also includes other troubled nations where the U.S. has been involved, such as Libya, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In a recent Intelligence Squareddebate, two teams of foreign policy experts faced off on the motion "Flexing American Muscles In The Middle East Will Make Things Worse." In these Oxford-style debates, the team that sways the most people to its side by the end is the winner.

Before the debate, the audience at the Kaufman Music Center in New York voted 26 percent in favor of the motion and 31 percent against, with 43 percent undecided. After the debate, those who agreed and disagreed with the motion were tied, at 45 percent each. That made the team arguing in favor of the motion the winner of the debate.