Breitbart News had the opportunity to speak with Bill Roggio, managing editor of The Long War Journal, about terrorist group ISIS’s advances through Iraq, Iran’s involvement, and what the US should do about it.

Breitbart News: Was the ISIS blitzkrieg through Iraq a planned or largely spontaneous operation?

Bill Roggio: It was absolutely a planned operation. They claim they’ve been planning the operation for years. Given the level of coordination and the reach of the operation, I don’t think that it is a stretch. We saw the operation to openly seize territory begin in Anbar Province in January. ISIS consolidated their gains in Anbar and continued onward. It is absolutely an operation that was planned over a period of time, and they are executing their operation relatively flawlessly.

Breitbart News: Why are Iraqi security forces seemingly not willing to fight back?

Bill Roggio: It's difficult to determine exactly why. Some say they were ordered to do so but ultimately, there is a failure of leadership somewhere along the lines in the Iraqi military, and the actual reasons for this are unknown. The explanations found are largely just unconfirmed rumors at this time. There are even rumors that senior government officials ordered the military to retreat. This is a society where rumors and conspiracies abound. Ultimately, it seemed the military felt that it couldn't hold its own in the field against an organized jihadist group like ISIS, and it melted away in the face of their advance.

Breitbart News: Has ISIS become a threat to US national interests?

Bill Roggio: ISIS is definitely a threat to the United States. It's already threatened the United States. It's the successor to Al Qaeda in Iraq under Zarqawi. While most of its operations are directed at Syria and Iraq, it will at some point turn its guns outward us as these jihadist groups so often do. Its actively operating training camps to teach prospective jihadists. You look at the propaganda videos, and it resembles Al Qaeda. It also has a massive influx of foreign fighters, and these fighters often go home and establish cells, or they go ahead and conduct attacks on their own.