双语时事：推翻萨达姆并非伊拉克乱局本源

2014-07-08 16:58:44来源：可可英语

　　There is a tendency to write of the Saddam Hussein time in Iraq as if he were a force for stability and peace. Just to remind ourselves: he began the Iraq-Iran war in which there were more than 1m casualties, many dying from chemical weapons, something which then played a part in pushing Iran towards its nuclear programme; he invaded Kuwait; he used chemical weapons in a genocidal attack against the Kurds; he excluded the Shia majority; and he persecuted the Marsh Arabs. The region’s problems are the result of deep-seated issues that, with the removal of those regimes, have now come to the surface.

　　现在出现了一种倾向，在写到萨达姆•侯赛因时代的伊拉克时，作者们将他描述得好像是维持稳定与和平的一股力量。我只想提醒大家：是他发动了两伊战争，这场战争导致上百万人伤亡，许多人死于化学武器，这是促使伊朗发展核计划的起因之一;他入侵了科威特;他在对库尔德人发动的种族清洗中使用化学武器，他镇压人口占多数的什叶派;他还迫害“沼泽阿拉伯人”(Marsh Arabs)。当今中东局势是一些深层问题导致的，随着旧政权被推翻，所有问题也浮上水面。

　　That is the point I am making. I am not seeking to persuade people about the decision in 2003. I am trying to convince them that the fundamental challenge is not the product of that decision or indeed the decision in Syria. It is a challenge of immense complexity that has not originated in anything we have done since this challenge burst fully on to our consciousness after the attacks of September 11 2001. Its origin lies in the toxic mix of bad politics and bad religion that is not confined to Iraq or Syria but is spread across not just the Middle East but also the world.

　　这就是我想表达的观点。我不是在说服人们支持我们在 2003年作出的决策。我是在努力让大家明白，当前的根本挑战并不是当时的决策所引发的，甚至也不是后来对叙利亚的决策所引发的。这是一个带有巨大复杂性的挑战，2001年9月11日袭击事件发生后我们充分意识到了这一挑战的存在，它的产生绝不是因为我们在这一事件后所采取的任何措施。其源头是糟糕的政治与糟糕的宗教所构成的有毒混合体，这一混合体并不局限于伊拉克或叙利亚，它不但蔓延到中东，还会扩散到全世界。

　　The reason we got into such difficulty in Iraq, as in Afghanistan, was precisely because once the dictatorship was removed, extremist Islamist forces then made progress extraordinarily difficult. That is their hideous impact the world over. The fundamental challenge today arises not from the decisions of 2003 or those of 2014. It is the challenge of Islamist extremism and it is global.

　　我们之所以在伊拉克遇到这样的困难，就像在阿富汗一样，正是因为一旦独裁政府被推翻，伊斯兰极端势力就会跳出来，让局面变得异常棘手，难以取得进展。这是他们对全世界的可怕影响。今日的根本挑战并不源于 2003年的决策或2014年的决策。这是伊斯兰极端主义的挑战，而且是全球性的。

　　It is a challenge we cannot avoid. Its outcome will dramatically affect our own security. We may be war weary and want to disengage but the people we are fighting do not share that weariness. Leave aside Iraq or Syria; look at Pakistan today. It has powerful institutions; it has a functioning democracy. Yet be in no doubt, the struggle it is waging is existential. Nigeria was two decades ago a model of religious tolerance. Today it is on the rack of extremism. Even in western societies, there are tensions that are real and dangerous.

　　我们无法逃避这一挑战。其后果将大大影响我们的安全。我们或许厌倦了战争，想要从中脱离，但我们的斗争对手没感到疲倦。且不谈伊拉克或叙利亚，看看今日的巴基斯坦。它拥有强大的机构，民主体制也运行良好。然而毫无疑问，它仍在进行关乎生死存亡的斗争。20年前尼日利亚曾是宗教宽容的典范，如今它却深受极端主义的危害。即使在西方社会，这种紧张也真实存在，且十分危险。

本文关键字: 双语时事推翻萨达姆并非伊拉克乱局本源