PAZ E GUERRA II - PAX ET BELLI II - PEACE AND WAR II

Marte shinning over Earth more than Venus («Marte e o Dinossáurio» photo by Luís Carreira http://www.astrosurf.com/carreira/obs2003_05.html)

Materialistic phase of History even so primitive based in energy that rules to much our world ...

To much complex, to much confuse for a simplification, Syria is to much vulnerable to the power games in Earth without "heart". We can see to much bad political leaders in a world where energy rules to much and create by human manipulators to much violence and wars by sources or ways of distribution (oil or gas pipelines).

After our post scriptum about Syria (PEACE AND WAR message of September 5, 2013) we see this opinion of a researcher of Instituto de Estudos Estratégicos e Internacionais (IEEI) in Diário de Notícias of September 6, 2013 (http://www.dn.pt/inicio/opiniao/interior.aspx?content_id=3405861&seccao=Maria%20Jo%E3o%20Tom%E1s#AreaComentarios):

«O interesse dos EUA na Síria»

por MARIA JOÃO TOMÁS

  «O ataque com armas químicas, que matou mais de mil pessoas numa zona de Damasco controlada pelos rebeldes, levantou indignação em todo o mundo. Na evidência dos factos, sobram as dúvidas sobre quem terá levado a cabo este crime hediondo. Os Estados Unidos têm a certeza de que foi Bashar al-Assad o grande responsável por esta barbaridade, sendo apoiados nesta certeza pelo Qatar, Arábia Saudita, França e Al-Qaeda. John Kerry afirmou que tinha em sua posse escutas telefónicas, mais do que conclusivas, para incriminar o Presidente da Síria, e é com base nesta justificação que decidiram atacar, fazendo lembrar as convicções da existência de armas químicas escondidas por Sadam Hussein, faz agora dez anos. Por outro lado, a imprensa russa, como o jornal Mint PressNews, afirma que ao falarem com a população de Ghouta, o bairro de Damasco controlado pela oposição, estes lhe asseguraram que, há algumas semanas, tinha chegado material de guerra que nunca tinham visto. A viúva de um dos rebeldes mortos durante o ataque, bem como o pai de outro que também faleceu nessa noite, relatam que ninguém sabia como manusear aquelas estranhas armas, que mais pareciam botijas. Culpam quem as forneceu, ou seja, o homem que costumava pagar os salários destes homens, e que também lhes entregava regularmente o armamento. Acrescentam que foi uma falta de responsabilidade não terem dado formação aos "soldados", e que foi por isso que a tragédia se deu. O regime de Bashar al-Assad defende-se, concluindo que é absurdo acusarem-no desta atrocidade, numa altura em que estavam a reconquistar terreno e que já tinham sob controlo a maior parte dos territórios que vão de Damasco a Aleppo, ou seja, a faixa da Síria que os xiitas alauitas reclamam como sendo deles, onde também estão as bases russas de Tartus e Latakia e que, por sua vez, se liga com o Líbano, onde está o Hezbollah controlado pelo Irão. Dizem que não fazia sentido nenhum fazer um ataque químico a poucos quilómetros do hotel onde estava hospedada a equipa de peritos da ONU incumbida de investigar o uso de armas químicas.No fim, resta a certeza de uma resposta americana, e a incerteza de a ONU autorizar o ataque, que Obama diz que será cirúrgico e eficaz, para evitar cair nos erros do passado, nomeadamente nos de Bush filho.Os únicos que verdadeiramente sofrem com esta guerra são os sírios, que morrem às mãos de todos, e todos dizem que têm razão e legitimidade para o fazer. Em vez de minorar os estragos de uma situação desesperada, agravam-se os danos, as mortes e a destruição. Só a diplomacia resolveria este conflito, mas parece que a ninguém interessa esta solução.Polémicas à parte, não deixa de ser estranho que tudo isto se esteja a passar numa altura em que a Síria parece já estar dividida em distintas zonas de influência: uma alauita, onde estão os interesses russos e iranianos, a dos curdos sírios no Norte, outra dos sunitas apoiados pelo Qatar e outra pela Arábia Saudita e, por fim, a zona dominada pela filial da Al-Qaeda, o Al-Nusra. Poderá haver umas sobras para os druzos nos montes Golã, e aos poucos cristãos que restam da limpeza étnica de que estão a ser alvo por parte dos jihadistas, ninguém sabe se não será mais seguro ir para outras paragens. Diz-se que a Arábia Saudita tentou comprar a Rússia com a oferta do controlo dos gasodutos e oleodutos que passam pelo território sírio, e que tornam este país tão cobiçado por todas as potências envolvidas. Mas a Putin deve interessar mais manter as bases de Tartus e de Latakia para conseguir estar mais perto da Europa e de África. Faltando pouco tempo para a conferência de Genebra sobre o conflito na Síria, e em vésperas de mais uma reunião ordinária da ONU, e culpas à parte, este parece ser o timing certo para se decidir o futuro da Síria e reparti-lo pelas partes interessadas. Por isso se torna tão conveniente que os americanos intervenham para se assegurarem de que os russos e o Irão não ficarão com tanto poder como gostariam. Digamos que, estrategicamente, a altura é a ideal.»


Let we see sources:

Mint Press News? From Minneapolis, United States of America, leaded by an daughter of Palestinian imigrants (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mint_Press_News).
«Mint Press News is an independent online news organization providing in-depth, thought-provoking analysis, reporting and political commentary on the most pressing issues facing our nation and our world including national politics, foreign affairs, energy & the environment and civil liberties through the lens of social justice and human rights.

We have developed a masthead of journalists, academics and political analysts who provide context and insight into issues and stories often overlooked by the current establishment media.

In a headline-driven industry, we provide readers with an innovative form of journalism that not only covers the “who, what, when, where and why” but also includes information on how certain topics relate to democracy, human rights and government — keeping the stories that really matter grounded in social justice while empowering our readers. (...)» (http://www.mintpressnews.com/about-us/)

And there we can see this work:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/

«EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.»

«By Dale Gavlak and Yahva Ababneh August 29, 2013»

«(...) The U.S., Britain, and France as well as the Arab League have accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the chemical weapons attack, which mainly targeted civilians. U.S. warships are stationed in the Mediterranean Sea to launch military strikes against Syria in punishment for carrying out a massive chemical weapons attack. The U.S. and others are not interested in examining any contrary evidence, with U.S Secretary of State John Kerry saying Monday that Assad’s guilt was “a judgment … already clear to the world.”

However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.

“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels were killed inside of a tunnel used to store weapons provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, who was leading a fighting battalion. The father described the weapons as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”

Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that it would similarly attack civilians in thhe Assad regime´s hertland of Latakia on Syria’s western coast, in purported retaliation.

“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.

A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,” he said.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” ‘J’ said.

Doctors who treated the chemical weapons attack victims cautioned interviewers to be careful about asking questions regarding who, exactly, was responsible for the deadly assault.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders added that health workers aiding 3,600 patients also reported experiencing similar symptoms, including frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision. The group has not been able to independently verify the information.

More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.

Saudi involvement

In a recent article for Business Insider, reporter Geoffrey Ingersoll highlighted Saudi Prince Bandar’s role in the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war. Many observers believe Bandar, with his close ties to Washington, has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.

Ingersoll referred to an article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph about secret Rusian-Saudi talks alleging that Bandar offered Russian President Vladimir Putin cheap oil in exchange for dumping Assad.

“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” Ingersoll wrote.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Bandar allegedly told the Russians.

“Along with Saudi officials, the U.S. allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise,” Ingersoll wrote.

“Bandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy,” he added.

According to U.K.’s Independent newspaper, it was Prince Bandar’s intelligence agency that first brought allegations of the use of sarin gas by the regime to the attention of Western allies in February.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the CIA realized Saudi Arabia was #serious# about toppling Assad when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar to lead the effort.

“They believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn’t: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it, wasta, Arabic for under-the-table clout,” it said.

Bandar has been advancing Saudi Arabia’s top foreign policy goal, WSJ reported, of defeating Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.

To that aim, Bandar worked Washington to back a program to arm and train rebels out of a planned military base in Jordan.

The newspaper reports that he met with the “uneasy Jordanians about such a base”:

His meetings in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah sometimes ran to eight hours in a single sitting. “The king would joke: ‘Oh, Bandar’s coming again? Let’s clear two days for the meeting,’ ” said a person familiar with the meetings.

Jordan’s financial dependence on Saudi Arabia may have given the Saudis strong leverage. An operations center in Jordan started going online in the summer of 2012, including an airstrip and warehouses for arms. Saudi-procured AK-47s and ammunition arrived, WSJ reported, citing Arab officials.

Although Saudi Arabia has officially maintained that it supported more moderate rebels, the newspaper reported that “funds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar.”

But rebels interviewed said Prince Bandar is referred to as “al-Habib” or ‘the lover’ by al-Qaida militants fighting in Syria.

Peter Oborne, writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has issued a word of caution about Washington’s rush to punish the Assad regime with so-called ‘limited’ strikes not meant to overthrow the Syrian leader but diminish his capacity to use chemical weapons:

Consider this: the only beneficiaries from the atrocity were the rebels, previously losing the war, who now have Britain and America ready to intervene on their side. While there seems to be little doubt that chemical weapons were used, there is doubt about who deployed them.

It is important to remember that Assad has been accused of using poison gas against civilians before. But on that occasion, Carla del Ponte, a U.N. commissioner on Syria, concluded that the rebels, not Assad, were probably responsible.

Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates .» 

What is the true about this matter? We don´t and we can´t know obvious, we only see some signals ...

USA Secretary of State John Kerry said in the House of Representatives (September 4, 2013): «With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assist, the answer is profoundly yes, (...). They have. That offer is on the table. (...) could potentially cost ... billions. (...) We don’t know what action we engaged in right now, but they have been quite significant. I mean, very significant.
In fact, some of them have said that if the U.S. is prepared to go do the whole thing, the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost. That’s how dedicated they are to this.
(...) Obviously, that is not in the cards and nobody is talking about it, but they are talking about taking seriously getting this job done.
(...) The president has said that again and again. And there is nothing in this authorization that should contemplate it. And, we reiterate, no boots on the ground.» (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2411806/Offer-table-Arab-countries-pay-scale-U-S-invasion-Syria-says-Secretary-State-John-Kerry.html)

The rise and fall of «Obama brand» is more clear now for some European and Portuguese intelligentia that manifest it fustration and desillusion about it. Why the illusion? USA and Europe needs much more better leaders and political societies, Persons, civil societies are more and more prepared for an upgrade of Democracy! Political decisions needs much more democratic undercontrol!