US to escalate involvement in ISIL war: Analyst

Recent assessment by the US intelligence agencies that the ISIL terrorist group is no weaker than a year ago is designed to prepare the public for “an escalation of American involvement,” says a political analyst

Mark Glenn made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday when asked about the new intelligence estimate that puts the Takfiri group’s total strength at between 20,000 and 30,000 militants, the same estimate as last August.

“This is a carefully crafted statement that is being used to create a situation to justify escalation,” Glenn, an American author and journalist, said. “It’s a way of creating this political atmosphere whereby escalation is the obvious next step.”

“It’s no secret that these groups are the bring-child of the CIA, MI6, Mossad and other western intelligence agencies,” he noted.

“They have been created with the express purpose of going in and destroying these countries in the Middle East, per Israel’s request, without having to utilize American boots on the ground,” Glenn explained.

“So when have American political leaders, whether it is the president himself, or whether it is his spokesman working for the various intelligence agencies, talking about [the fact] that we just cannot get a handle on these groups, we have to look at this as a piece of the puzzle that they are laying down in front of us that they are doing with the express purpose of preparing the American public for an escalation of American involvement,” he stated.

Despite billions of dollars spent and more than 10,000 militants killed, the ISIL group remains a well-funded terror network able to replenish its ranks with foreign fighters as quickly as the US can eradicate them, according to the assessments.

“These Takfiri groups are performing brilliantly,” Glenn said. “They are doing exactly what Israel and what these western intelligence agencies have programmed them to do, they’re going in and they’re destroying countries such as Syria and destroying countries such as Iraq.”

“Why cannot the United States, with all its technical power, go up against this ragtag group of terrorist mercenaries out in the desert, who do not have sophisticated weaponry?” he asked. “The answer to that question is that they simply do not want to.”

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of Iraq and Syria.