The Syrian Revolutionary Front also lost its bases in Jabal al-Zawiya, a group of mountain villages held by pro-U.S. warlord Jamal Maarouf since 2012. Al-Nusra captured stockpiles of weapons at Maarouf's headquarters.

FSA's loss of Idlib, the last of northern Syrian provinces it held was a crippling blow to U.S. plan to arm and train armed organizations on the ground to fight the Islamic State. Obama's $500 million program for that purpose is a central component of his strategy to fight IS. It has now pretty much gone up in smoke.

The only good news is that the Kurdish forces defending Kobani is pushing IS out of town center. But the main force fighting the IS is the People's Defense Union (YPG) and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The latter is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Marxist-Leninist in its original ideology. Its leader Abdullah Ocalan is still in a Turkey prison from where he still issues instructions to his followers.

So there are all sorts of contradictions. A Jabaht al-Nusra base was the first target hit when the U.S. launched its airstrikes in Syria in September. That was a factor driving al-Nusra to push against the pro-west moderate Syrian rebels.

U.S. air support of the Kurdish forces defending Kobani has antagonized Turkey, a member of NATO and U.S. ally. Turkey refused to allow the United States to use its Incirlik Base, so U.S. aircraft had to fly 1,200 miles from their bases in the Gulf to northern Syria.

It is now common knowledge that Turkey and the Gulf monarchies poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into jihadists fighting against Assad. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had to apologize for revealing that fact in a talk at Harvard.

The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.h5a3.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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