The Taliban may not be the primary target in the Marja offensive in Afghanistan: The Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney and Nicholas Sabloff point to a Washington Post article that says that one of the main targets is American public opinion. The Post says the campaign is aimed at convincing Americans of a “new era” in the eight-year-old war and also at showing Afghans that American and government forces can protect them. "You want to be able to define your narrative, and we've had trouble doing that in the past," said one civilian adviser to U.S. commanders.
