Take, for example, your favorite variety of artificial cheese crackers. They now contain "10x more cheese!", which is true of course because they never contained cheese to begin with and zero multiplied by ten still equals zero. It's the same high-fructose corn syrup garbage, but sales are up, up up.
The same holds true when selling the American public unappetizing wars in far-away lands that they cannot find, not even on their smartphone apps. When the initial claptrap justifications for war lose their appeal, simply dress up the old claptrap in a dainty new outfit. We're not trying to be condescending — marketing and re-branding garbage is a true art form worthy of your admiration and respect.
This is why we tip our proverbial hat to Jimmy Carter, who has ingeniously repackaged tired Pentagon talking points used to rationalize our unconditional support for the "moderate rebels" fighting gloriously for "democracy" in Syria.
Using his dubious credentials as a man of peace and understanding, Carter writes in the New York Times that the new cease-fire agreement in Syria is in grave danger:
Over the weekend, the United States accidentally bombed Syrian government troops. On Monday, the Syrian military declared it would no longer respect the deal, resumed airstrikes on Aleppo, and even a humanitarian aid convoy was bombed.To summarize Carter's brilliant observations: Peace in Syria cannot be achieved until everyone agrees to stop questioning the Pentagon's narrative. Yes, bombing Syrian troops under siege from ISIS for the last two years is a regrettable "accident"; let's not forget Assad's bloodthirsty air strikes against aid convoys, though.
...
The targeting of the humanitarian convoy, a war crime, should serve as an added impetus for the United States and Russia to recommit to the cease-fire. The two parties were well aware of the difficulties as they spent a month negotiating the cease-fire's terms.
The agreement can be salvaged if all sides unite, for now, around a simple and undeniably important goal: Stop the killing. It may be more likely than it sounds.
Comment: Update (Sept. 22):
Yesterday, North Carolina's Governor declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to deal with the protests. The man reported as killed is now said to have survived, and is on life support - the city tweeted that the shooting was "civilian on civilian", but bystanders point out that he was standing between two ministers, and police were close by. Bank of America employees were told not to go to work on Thursday, the Transit System was shut down. The deceased Scott's wife called for protestors to do so peacefully, and not damage property. Some ignored that call. Charlotte's mayor is considering implementing a curfew.
Last night 9 people were injured and 44 were arrested. The city's police chief refused to make public the tape of Scott's shooting.
The media is having a field day reporting on the antisocial segment of the protestors, who were mostly peaceful for the first day, until police started firing tear gas. For example, Charlotte's CW affiliate WCCB reported that protesters tried "to throw still photographer into fire". A photographer was attacks, but there's no evidence he was almost immolated.
For example, there are several reports about CNN reporter Ed Lavandera getting body-slammed by a protester. What they don't all report is that it was an accident, and the man later gave Lavandera a hug and apologized.
A video of a homeless man in London getting beaten up by violent youths is even floating around as evidence of the violent "black thugs" in Charlotte.
If you can't control dissent, you can always control the media.