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【中文标题】美国是失败的民主国家：人民期望和平 政治炮制战争
【原文标题】America is a “Failed Democracy": Its People want Peace and its Elected Officials make War
【登载媒体】Global Reserch
【来源地址】
【译 者】渔音谦谦
【翻译方式】人工
【声 明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。
【原文库链接】http://bbs.m4.cn/thread-194972-1-1.html
【译文】
The war in Afghanistan today hangs like some cloud of poison gas over Washington that won’t blow away. It sickens everything as it spreads. It continues to suck precious tax dollars out of the Treasury, money this country cannot afford to squander, especially as millions of Americans are sinking into poverty and joblessness exceeds ten percent. Writing in USA Today last March 10th, Susan Page reported, “In one year, 24 million slide from ‘thriving’ to ‘struggling’ and “Some fear that the American dream may be in peril as well.” Worse, the U.S. is turning poverty-plagued Afghanistan, a long-suffering nation of 25 million souls into another Iraq, perhaps even another Viet Nam. Afghanistan has already been under U.S. assault for eight years and President Obama’s top military advisers are telling him it will take many more years to achieve “victory,” a term having utterly no meaning for skyrocketing numbers of dead and dismembered civilians.
今日的阿富汗战争，仿佛是几团笼罩在华盛顿上空难以散去的毒气乌云。所经之处，草木不生。它不断的吞噬财务部宝贵的税收收入,这个国家扁扁的荷包已经经不起这般挥霍。特别是此时，数百万美国人还浸没在超过10%的失业率和评估率的泥沼中。苏珊 佩奇去年3月10日在《今日美国》发表的文章中写道：“一年后，2400万人将从“繁荣富裕”滑落至“苦苦奋斗”，一些人也担心美国梦处于破灭的边缘。”更糟糕的是，美国正把一个贫穷、遭受瘟疫折磨的阿富汗，一个承载着2500万长期忍受苦痛灵魂的国家，变成另一个伊拉克，甚至是另一个越南。美国已在阿富汗持续“抗战”了8年，而奥巴马总统的首席军事顾问却告诉他美国将再花费几个年头来取得在阿富汗的“胜利”，一个对飞涨的平民死亡和被肢解人数毫无意义的期限。
U.S. troops dispatched to “build long-term stability” in Afghanistan (the phrase was uttered by Obama accomplice British Prime Minister Gordon Brown) went from 5,200 in 2002 to 62,000 currently while the cost has shot up from $21 billion to $60 billion a year in that period for a grand total of $228 billion---dollars that could have been far better spent in America, on Americans, for Americans. And dispatching more troops means dispatching more targets. “Deaths from bombings soaring,” the Miami Herald reported last August 12th. IED explosions soared to 828 in July, more than twice as many as in the previous July and the highest level since the war began. U.S. casualties are at record highs. This is the road to “victory”?
被派遣的美国军队致力于“建立长期稳定”的阿富汗秩序（这个说法源自奥巴马的盟友---英国首相戈登 布朗的一份声明。），军队的数量从2002年的5200人增长到现在的62000人，与此同时军费也从每年210亿美元激增至600亿美元。增长的军事力量却使越来越多的美军成为被袭击的“靶子”。“因爆炸造成的死亡人数飙升。”《迈阿密先驱报》8月12日的一篇报道中写道。整个7月份，因简单的炮弹装置引发的爆炸事件上升至828起，是去年同期的两倍多，甚至超过了战争爆发初期的最高数量。美军的死伤人数也创下开战以来的最高纪录。敢问奥巴马总统，这就是通往“胜利”的那条路吗？
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, calls the Afghan crisis “serious and deteriorating” as U.S. casualties hit new highs. The Pentagon throws crack Marine fighters at the Taliban in southern Helmand province yet they are not enough. General Stanley McChrystal may shortly have to ask to increase his forces by nearly half. Worse, President Obama has escalated the fighting into Pakistan, where the Pakistani Taliban control areas close to the capital of Islamabad, and where the fighting has created two million refugees. Congratulations to the White House and Congress: America is now at war in three Middle Eastern nations, on behalf of governments in all three that are weak, unpopular, and corrupt. Who would have thunk it? And even though McChrystal says “the most important thing is to not hurt the Afghan people”, Obama is escalating, not withdrawing, and children just like his own daughters are being carted to the cemeteries.
在美军伤亡人数不断冲击更高点时，参谋长联席会议主席，麦克穆勒上校形容阿富汗的危险局势是“严酷而又不断恶化的”。五角大楼匆忙的把海军部队部署在南部赫尔曼得省的塔利班地区，但是仅凭借他们是不够的。斯坦利 麦克克里斯托也许会在短时间内要求增加将近一半的兵力。更加糟糕的是，奥巴马总统在不断加重对巴基斯坦的打击力度，靠近首都伊斯兰堡的塔利班控制区内的战斗已经使200万人沦为难民。恭喜白宫和国会，美国现在与三个中东国家在战场上周旋，而这三个国家的政府恰恰是薄弱、腐败且不得人心的（美国一向“厌恶”）。可是谁又会感谢美国呢？即使麦克克里斯托说“最重要的是不伤害阿富汗人民”，可奥巴马现在还在推动战争的不断升级，而不是抽身而退，许多和玛利亚、丽莎[译者注：奥巴马的女儿]一样的孩子正被运往死亡的墓地。
Even conservative columnist Pat Buchanan asks, “What is so vital to us in that wilderness land worth another eight years of fighting, bleeding and dying, other than averting the humiliation of another American defeat?” Buchanan rightly adds, “And if Obama yet believes this is a war of necessity we cannot lose, and he must soldier on, his decision will sunder his party and country, and put at risk his presidency.”
甚至是保守派专栏作者佩特布坎南也质问道：“在那片荒凉的土地上，有什么值得我们用另一个8年的流血和牺牲去交换？说白了只是为避免再一次的失败给美国带来的窘境而已。”布坎南尖锐的指出：“如果奥巴马还一意孤行的认为战争是不能忽视的，他还要坚持下去的话，那么他就亲手切断和党派、国家之间的联系，这甚至会威胁他的总统生命。”
George Will, another conservative columnist, wants to continue the war but by doing “only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters.” He wants land forces out. Apart from the smug arrogance with which Will dismisses Afghanistan as a no-account nation (!), this theep dinker’s strategy of bombarding from untouchable bases at sea will only inspire fresh hatred against the U.S. Afghani rage is white hot because the Pentagon attacks with unmanned drones and Afghanis regard this method of warfare as “unfair” and unmanly. Reuters reported that in Farah province the district leader lamented an air attack in Bala Boluk that killed 108 civilians. Does Obama really believe he is doing the Afghans a favor?
乔治威尔，另一名保守派专栏作家， 却希望战争可以继续，但是采取“只从海路进攻；利用情报、无人驾驶飞机、巡航导弹、空袭和小而精的特种部队对长达1500英里的阿巴边境地区进行打击”的方式，而且应该将陆军撤出阿富汗。这个掘坟者提出对海上基地的轰炸只会使阿富汗对美国的仇恨上升至白热化，因为阿富汗人始终认为五角大楼使用无人侦察机是“不公平的战争”和“怯懦的进攻”。根据路透社的报道，阿富汗法拉省的地区领导人说在美军对巴拉波吕克的一次空袭中，有108名平民身亡。奥巴马是否确信他可以帮助阿富汗人？
Americans need to recognize that violence only begets violence, that attacks only beget more attacks, and that each round of reprisals gets ever deadlier. Also, there would be no war today if U.S. meddling hadn’t jump-started Osama bin Laden. “(President) Clinton’s bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 effectively created Al Qaeda, both as a known entity in the intelligence world and also in the Muslim world,” Noam Chomsky is quoted as saying in “Imperial Ambitions” (Metropolitan Books) by David Barsamian. “In fact, the bombings created Osama bin Laden as a major symbol, led to a very sharp increase in recruitment and financing for Al Qaeda-style networks, and tightened relations between bin Laden and the Taliban, which previously had been quite hostile to him.” The U.S. is by no means innocent in bringing war and misery to this country.
美国人必须认识到，暴力只会催生暴力，袭击只会带来更多的反击，而每一轮的报复会换来更多的危险。此外，如果当年美国没有插手打击乌萨马本拉登，就不会有今日的战争。“（总统）克林顿1998年对苏丹和阿富汗的轰炸有效的催生了基地组织，之后其更是闻名于穆斯林和全世界。”大卫巴塞米安在《帝国野心引述》（广域出版社）一书中原引乔姆斯基的话说。“事实上，轰炸将乌萨马本拉登塑造成典型，其参与人数和支助资金急剧增加，和敌对的塔利班之间的关系也日益紧张。”所以说美国将战争和困难带给阿富汗，一点也不夸张。
While the only reason many Americans initially approved of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is because their politicians lied to them, a weak-kneed Congress has consistently funded the White House. As David Swanson notes in “Daybreak”(Seven Stories Press) the only member of the House to oppose letting President Bush pounce on Afghanistan was Barbara Lee., who wept honest tears of shame and rage. “She alone, would refuse to authorize the president to use powers the Constitution does not give him, and trust him to use those powers wisely.” Again, Swanson writes, when the House last April voted on President Obama’s budget to expand the Afghan conflict, “this time Congressman Dennis Kucinich stood alone in voting No in opposition to war.” “We are a free nation,” Swanson laments, “that regularly bombs civilians, detains the innocent, and tortures suspects---sometimes to death.”
许多美国人当初赞同阿富汗战争和伊拉克战争的唯一原因是他们的政客在撒谎，他们称国会一直在资助白宫。正如大卫斯万森在《拂晓》（七故事出版社）中指出的，芭芭拉李含着羞愧和愤怒的眼泪反对总统布什突然袭击阿富汗，而她也是唯一一位投反对票的议员。“只有她一个人拒绝批准布什总统利用宪法权利，不批准是因为她无法相信总统先生可以明智地使用权利。”而且，斯万森还写到，今年4月众议院审议奥巴马关于扩大阿富汗战争预算提案时，只有议员库西尼奇一人投了反对票。“我们是一个民主的国家，”斯万森感叹到“却定期炸死平民，拘禁无辜者，有时折磨嫌疑犯——甚至直到死亡。”
As Francis Boyle, international law professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, puts it, “Now we have a situation where Obama is off on his own without authorization from the UN Security Council and also now illegally exceeding the authorization that had been given to Bush by Congress after 911…plus he has now escalated the conflict into Pakistan…(and) set off a humanitarian catastrophe for people of Pakistan akin to what Nixon set off in Cambodia.”
伊利诺斯州立大学国际法教授弗兰西斯卡 博伊尔认为：“奥巴马目前绕过安理会的授权，同时911后，布什也从国会那里得到了过度的不合理授权，加上目前白宫加强了对巴基斯坦的打击力度…（和）给巴基斯坦人带去了一场人道主义灾难，就如尼克松对柬埔寨做的那些事一样。”
America today is a “failed state.” It is a failed democracy. Its people want peace and its elected officials make war. After taking the lead in establishing the United Nations at San Francisco after World War II, America is today the chief occupier, the chief war-maker, the chief arms-maker, and the chief arms-peddler, on the planet, and the nation that is most feared by humanity at large. It spends nearly 200 times as much for war as diplomacy. America’s Founders envisioned a nation that would show “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind” (Jefferson) yet today the Pentagon spends more taxpayer’s dollars on war than all other countries combined. And while it frightens its citizens into thinking they are in danger from terrorists with fabricated color-coded alerts it is itself spreading terror in the Middle East. Mr. Obama is only the latest, slickest model in its long succession of imperial presidents. Maybe he should heed the advice President George Bush dispensed in Milwaukee on October 8, 2003, but never took himself: “See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.”
今日的美国是一个“失败的国家”，是一种失败的民主政治。美国人渴望和平，但是选举出来的政府却发动战争。二战后的纽约，美国在联合国建立中成功扮演了“领导人”的角色，而现在却成为地球上的首席占领者、首席战争制造者、首席军火制造者和首席军火商，这个国家也被世界上大多数人所畏惧着。美国建国者起初的构想是体现“对人类智慧的尊重”（杰佛逊），而如今的五角大楼仅在战争一项中就花费比其他国家总和还多的税费。同时美国人也无时不刻担忧自己处在恐怖主义和种族主义的危险之中。在推行帝国扩张主义的长河中，奥巴马仅仅是最新的代表人物。也许他要留意布什总统03年10月8日在密尔沃基发表讲话中提到的意见：“显而易见，自由的国家是爱好和平的。自由的国家是不会侵犯他人。自由的国家不会制造大规模杀伤性武器。”
Of far greater importance than what the Afghan war will do to Obama’s presidency or the national debt or even the lengthening casualty lists of our troops is what it is doing to the innocent people of Afghanistan. The managers of the military-industrial complex who are promoting this war for their own profit apparently lose no sleep when they read reports such as the one from Farah cited above. Perhaps they should be made to live among the Afghans for a time and share their peril or carry water to the wounded in the hospitals and change the blood-soaked sheets. Maybe they should be required to put their own sons and daughters in Kabul and Bala Boluk and see if they continue the Predator attacks. Back in 1955, when Richard J. Daley first ran for mayor of Chicago, the public was unconvinced he had their best interests at heart. He won them over with the words, “When I see your street, I see my street. When I see your house, I see my house. When I see your children I see my children.” That’s the kind of thinking those who hold power in America today need to adopt. When will President Obama see Afghanistan’s daughters as his own?
阿富汗战争对于奥巴马总统任期、国家的债务或者越来越长的伤亡名单的影响都远不止给无辜的阿富汗人民带去的灾难。那些为了获取利益马不停蹄推行战争的军火商，读读那些来自法拉的报告后，还能睡得着吗？也许应该让他们和阿富汗人民一起住上一段时间，也体会危险的环境，为医院里的伤者运送水，更换染血的床单。也许他们应该将自己的儿女送去喀布尔或者巴拉布吕克，然后问问自己是否还会继续支持战争的计划。早在1955年，当理查德戴利第一次竞选芝加哥市长一职时，起初公众并不信服他，随后他却用一句话转变了局势，获得了胜利：“当我看到您的街道，我仿佛看到了我自己的。当我看到了您的房子，我仿佛也看见了我自己的房子。”这是当代美国执政者理应具有的思想。不知道奥巴马总统看到阿富汗女孩时，会不会想起自己的女儿呢？
译者说：最近在《纽约时报》的网站上看到一篇文章，因为医疗改革、气候和能源问题引发的国会大辩论，批判美国式的“一党民主”。
对美国式民主的批判声一直以来不绝于耳，有说是“少数人的民主”、有些人说是“富人专属的民主”，等等等。
美国对中东地区实行的政策可以称为“输出性民主”，这是一项美国持久性的战略政策，因其突出的工具性以及由之决定的可选择性而被广泛运用，但却是服从、服务于美国的安全战略的。
冷战期间,出于遏制苏联、获取石油、保卫以色列的目的,美国在中东"输出民主"时坚持"中东例外论";后冷战时期,美国采取了较为积极的"输出民主"行动,但阿尔及利亚民主试验失败的事实,又迫使其重新踏上"中东例外论"的老路;"9·11"事件后,美国在中东采取极端的、冒进式的" 输出民主"战略,结果导致中东地区更加动荡.
对美国民主政治或制度感兴趣的筒子，在此推荐一本书，法国著名政论思想家托克维尔的代表作《论美国的民主》，分上下卷两本。上卷的第一部分讲述美国的政治制度，第二部分对美国的民主进行社会学的分析。下卷分四个部分，以美国为背景发挥其政治哲学和政治社会学思想。建议阅读商务印刷馆的1988年出版的平装版本。
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狗仔卡
发表于 2009-9-15 17:26
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楼主
发表于 2009-9-15 17:55
把小爱爱也拉过来。。。。茄子。。。。
