SAN ANTONIO – Having flown missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, retired Air Force Col. J.R. Rust, of San Antonio, fought the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Once those wars ended with no residual American combat troops, Rust said the vacuum was filled by the savagery of ISIS, the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq.
"The bad guys hold the territory and they have dispersed," Rust said. "It's very unfortunate. It's difficult to combat."
Yet now Congress is weighing an authorization of war submitted by President Obama.
"The devil is in the details," Rust said.
The President's three-year plan has critics on both sides of the aisle.
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, of New York, said, "I want to support the President's use of force. I also want due-diligence. I want to know how many troops, which troops, what are their missions."
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, of Virginia, said, "The President's been pretty clear that we're going to have no ground troops, but this language in the proposed authorization looks to be a little more open to that."
A White House spokesman has said the president needs flexibility for "a chaotic military conflict."
"First of all, you have to have the willingness and perseverance to take the fight to them," Rust said, "Whether that involves troops on the ground, I believe so. That's the reality of it."
Rust said whether the U.S. limits the authorization, "I think it needs to be result measured, not necessarily a time."
As a former combat pilot with nearly 25 years in the Air Force, Rust said the U.S. air strikes against ISIS so far, have fallen short.
"I don't even call it an air campaign compared to what we've done historically in my experience and fully knowing what we're capable of," Rust said.
As for the concerns of war-weary Americans in light of thousands of lives lost and many veterans still bearing the wounds of war, Rust said ISIS is a growing threat.
He said, "This will not only affect the region. It could definitely impact our own homeland."