My must read of the day "Taliban Deftly Offer Message in Video of Freed U.S. Soldier," in the New York Times:
In their viral video to the world on Wednesday, framing dramatic images of their transaction with the United States with music, commentary and context, the Taliban scored their biggest hit yet after years of effort to improve their publicity machine — one bent on portraying them as the legitimate government of Afghanistan in exile.
Within hours of the video’s release, the Taliban website where it was posted was overwhelmed with traffic and the page hosting it crashed, according to Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the insurgents. The video has since been uploaded in dozens of different versions on YouTube.
It is the product of a Taliban propaganda effort that has grown increasingly savvy.
The threat of propaganda should probably be on the low end of analysis when officials determine how to deal with an actor such as the Taliban—in any situation.
It's propaganda. You know it will benefit the other side and you do not have a say in what gets produced. Some of it is inevitable. Still, we should want to avoid just giving it away, and that's what we've done here.
It's an additional reason the Bergdahl trade was illogical. We handed terrorists great propaganda, and it will surely be used to increase perceptions and behaviors that threaten our safety.
We gave them propaganda, legitimacy, and to date, the United States has done almost nothing to counter their narrative.
The Taliban won this on every front. They won because we've casually handed them each victory, and by allowing the Taliban to provide news outlets with the bulk of information we're still giving it to them now. Their propaganda has an unattested platform.