Why the Taliban is winning the propaganda war

The Taliban is using a wide-range of propaganda weapons, spanning high and low technology to sway Afghan support, according to a report from the Ploughshares-funded International Crisis Group. Although polls show the movement remains unpopular, insurgents have readily exploited a sense of growing alienation fostered by years of broken government promises, official corruption, and the rising death toll among civilians from airstrikes and other military actions. "The result is weakening public support for nation-building, even though few actively support the Taliban," Crisis Group reports, while the Afghan government has hurt its own cause in the past by making little effort to engage the media, leaving the Taliban to dominate the narrative.