The United States' air war against Islamic State that began in Iraq on Aug. 8 and in Syria on Sept. 23 has not prevented IS advances. IS forces have captured nearly half of the key Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on the Syria-Turkey border in spite of continued U.S. air strikes.

Round one goes to... [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

In Iraq, IS has captured Hit, Kubaisa and Ramadi in addition to the many cities and towns they already hold, and the group now controls some 80 percent of Anbar Province. The Iraqi government has just lost a key military base in the area to IS, leaving only Haditha and one other military base in Iraqi government hands.

IS forces are also advancing toward Abu Ghraib, the town made infamous by the U.S. torture of prisoners there, which is less than 30 kilometers from Baghdad.

In the bleak picture in Iraq, there is one bright spot: there have been some advances against IS in the center and the north of the country. But these successes have not been won by government security forces, but rather by a sectarian Shiite militia that does not distinguish between IS and the Sunni population and that is now carrying out ethnic cleansing in Diala Province. That is why Sunnis are supporting IS as the lesser evil.

In short, U.S.-led air strikes have not changed the strategic balance in favor of U.S. allies on the ground. IS has not been "degraded" let alone "destroyed," which was Obama's stated goal. Instead, IS has become stronger.

What is more worrisome is that IS has actually gained wider appeal. Radicals throughout the region are rallying to the Islamic State. Some of the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan have announced their loyalty to IS leader Ibrahim al-Samarra'i (a.k.a. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi).Two or three Lebanese Sunni troops have defected from Beirut and announced their allegiance to IS. The Amsar al-Shariah, or Helpers of Islamic Law in Libya, a terrorist organization, also announced allegiance to IS.

According to Al Jazeera, a Chechen named Abu Omar al-Shishani who hails from the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia is leading the IS attack in Kobani. He was also the commander who led the spearhead campaign to capture Mosul.