双语新闻：打击ISIS 美国不应“胜勇追穷寇”

2014-09-25 16:07:14来源：可可英语

　　Can the US “degrade and ultimately destroy” theIslamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as PresidentBarack Obama promised on Wednesday, withoutbeing drawn into another open-ended conflict?

　　美国能像总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)上周三承诺的那样，在不用陷入又一场无休止冲突的情况下，“不断削弱直至最终消灭”伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国(ISIS)吗?

　　Not if America intends, as Joe Biden, the vice-president, put it last week, to follow Isis “to thegates of hell”. That open-ended commitment takespressure off states in the region to solve their ownproblems, and acting upon it would be a strategic mistake. Americans are anyway unlikely toaccept the cost in blood and treasure. That should primarily be borne by the regional stateswhose broken politics brought Isis into being, and which have the most to lose. Yet these statescannot realistically be expected to defeat Isis militarily without US support. Whether the UScan avoid entanglement in a long war depends on how it defines its role in defeating Isis.

　　答案是否定的——如果美国打算像其副总统乔•拜登(Joe Biden)上周所说的那样，把ISIS一路清剿“到地狱之门”。那种无止境的承诺缓解了中东国家解决它们自身问题的压力，依此采取行动将是战略上的错误。无论如何，美国人都不太可能接受生命和财力损失的代价。这些代价主要应该由中东国家承担，正是后者的政治失败催生了ISIS，它们面临的潜在损失也最大。然而，从现实角度来说，如果没有美国的支持，也别指望这些国家在军事上击败ISIS。美国能否避免卷入一场长期战争，取决于它如何定义自己在击败ISIS中的角色。

　　When western forces fought in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003, they quickly defeatedthe armies fielded by those states. But then the west took primary responsibility for defeatingthe insurgencies that had taken root inside the borders of those states. The follow-on mission,which I experienced as an infantry officer in southern Afghanistan, becameindistinguishable from local politics. Given the need to tackle all the problems that stokedinsurgency – poor governance, corruption, land rights, ethnic prejudice – it could not havebeen anything less. The hard military objective of defeating an enemy evolved into an open-ended commitment to stabilise politics and civil society.

　　当西方国家2001年出兵阿富汗、2003年出兵伊拉克的时候，它们迅速击溃了这两个国家的军队。但随后西方承担了击败叛乱的主要责任，而叛乱发端于那些国家的境内。后续任务(我作为步兵部队军官，在阿富汗南部执行任务时对此有亲身经历)变得与地方政治没什么两样。考虑到有必要应对当初引发叛乱的所有问题(糟糕治理、腐败、土地权、族裔偏见)，这是必然的。击败敌人的硬性军事目标，演变为稳定政治和公民社会的无止境承诺。

　　It is reasonable for the US to lead the initial phase of military action, to prevent Isis fromexercising overt control of the territory it seeks by hitting their forces when they appear inthe open, and striking their leadership, both from the air. However, if the mission is to remainwithin clear bounds, it cannot take responsibility for the permanent defeat of Isis, which mustlie with local actors and regional states. Their security is what is primarily at stake, and thelong-term stabilisation needed to defeat an insurgency requires them to fix their politics.

　　美国在军事行动初期打头阵是合理的：从空中打击ISIS领导人以及出现在空旷地区的武装分子，阻止ISIS控制其想要染指的地盘。然而，要使任务被限定在明确界限以内，美国就不能承担永久击败ISIS的责任，那种责任必须由当地势力和地区国家承担。这件事主要关系到它们的安全，平息叛乱所需的长期稳定要求他们解决国内政治问题。

本文关键字: 打击ISIS