When the US led an international coalition in mid-2014 to bomb Daesh targets in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist organization had already occupied large swathes of territory spanning the two Arab countries and had the means to send its fighters all the way to Baghdad.

A five-day war between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza ended in a ceasefire Saturday, with both sides claiming to have won the round. In fact, with a relatively low death count on both sides, some would describe the aftermath as yet another stalemate.