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本帖最后由 lilyma06 于 2011-12-19 15:19 编辑
【中文标题】伊拉克战争之后 我们留下了什么
【原文标题】What We Leave Behind
After nearly nine years of war in Iraq, moving out is a bigger job than you might think.
【登载媒体】外交政策
【原文作者】DAVID AXE
【原文链接】http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/15/what_we_leave_behind
What We Leave Behind
After nearly nine years of war in Iraq, moving out is a bigger job than you might think.
我们留下了什么
在近九年的伊拉克战争之后，脱身也许比我们想象的要困难。
U.S. Marines lowered the American flag at Baghdad airport today, bringing the Iraq war to an official end. The conflict, which claimed 4,484 American lives and those of at least 100,000 Iraqis, may have ended with an understated ceremony -- but the process of leaving Mesopotamia was anything but quiet.
美国海军陆战队于今日在巴格达机场降下了美国国旗，正式宣告伊拉克战争的结束。导致了4484名美国人和至少100000名伊拉克人死亡的这场冲突，也许会随着一场低调的仪式而宣告终止，但撤离美索不达米亚的进程绝非祥和安宁。
The U.S. exit in Iraq was made possible by one of the largest, most sophisticated logistical campaigns in world history. Shutting down hundreds of bases, packing up millions of pieces of equipment, and turning around the cargo ships, transport planes, and truck convoys represented a "monumental task," according to Army Brig. Gen. Bradley Becker, who oversaw the final months of the drawdown.
美国从伊拉克的撤离可能是世界历史上最大规模、最复杂的后勤活动。关闭数以百计的军事基地、打包数百万份的装备零件，以海陆空各种方式。负责最后几个月监管事务的Bradley Becker陆军准将称之为“艰巨的任务”。
To understand the scope of the U.S. drawdown over the past two and a half years, it helps to look back at the enormous footprint that the United States built over more than eight years of war. In the four months of build-up that preceded the March 2003 invasion, U.S. Transportation Command -- the Pentagon's in-house logistics and shipping service -- delivered just over 1 million tons of cargo and 258,000 passengers, using 3,900 round-trips by airplanes and 150 by ships. Counting pilots, ship's crews, cargo handlers, bookkeepers, warehouse workers, and other professionals, the pre-war supply push employed 150,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and civilian contractors.
为了理解美国在过去两年半中撤离的规模，有必要回顾在之前的长达八年的战争中所构筑的庞大系统。从2003年三月的入侵开始，在战争开始的四个月内，美国运输司令部---五角大楼内部的后勤和运输部门---动用3900次往返空运和150次往返船运，投送了超过一百万吨的物资和258000名人员。如果算上飞行员、船员、货运人员、记账人员、仓储人员以及其它各类专业人士，这场战争的战前准备就动用了150000名人员，包括陆军士兵、海军水手、陆战队员、空军飞行员和民间承包商。
By contrast, United Parcel Service (UPS), the world's largest express shipping company with roughly 425,000 employees, in a typical four-month period delivers around 5 million tons of cargo to the entire world. In other words, Transportation Command hauled to just one country roughly a fifth of what UPS delivers to more than 220 countries, combined.
与之相比较，联合包裹服务公司(UPS)作为世界上最大规模的快递公司，拥有大约425000名雇员，日常四个月内大约为将五百万吨的物资运送至世界各地。换句话说，运输司令部将相当于UPS在全世界超过220个国家运输总量的五分之一的物资投送到了一个国家。
This massive U.S. presence only grew during the war's peak in 2007 and 2008, when the armed services maintained some 505 bases in Iraq, housing 165,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of weapons and vehicles. The occupation force was fed, fueled, and supplied by tens of thousands of military and contract logisticians in a round-the-clock effort that cost, on average, $307 billion a year.
战争在2007年至2008年进行得尤为激烈，因而那段时间内美国在伊拉克的大规模军事存在有所增加。军事部门维持了505个军事基地，供165000军事人员以及数十万件武器和车辆驻扎。数万名的军事和军需承包商为军事力量提供全天候的食品、燃料和补给，平均年耗费高达3070亿美元。
This effort was not only expensive, it was dangerous. As the invasion transformed into an occupation, U.S. Army truckers assumed the major burden of hauling supplies between ports in Kuwait and the front-line bases in Iraq. It was dull and dirty work, as Iraqi insurgents quickly learned to target U.S. forces where they were most vulnerable: their supply lines.
这样的工作昂贵且危险。随着美国军事力量的任务由入侵转变为占领，美国陆军车队承担了从科威特港口和伊拉克前线基地的繁重的运输任务。这是脏而无聊的工作，因为伊拉克的叛乱分子迅速学会了攻击美国军事力量最为薄弱的部分：它们的补给线。
In January 2005, I rode along with troopers from the South Carolina Army National Guard's 1052nd Transportation Company as they convoyed back and forth across north-central Iraq in tan-painted big rigs. On nearly every mission, they came across roadside bombs as they passed near insurgent strongholds such as Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and the Shiite bastion of Najaf. If they spotted the bombs in time, Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams would swoop in to disable them. But the guardsmen weren't always so lucky: On Oct. 27, 2004, the 1052nd's Sgt. Jerome Lemon was decapitated by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle. Lemon was just one of hundreds of military logisticians to die in eight years of war.
在2005年1月，笔者跟随来自南加州国民警卫队第1052运输连的士兵在伊拉克中北部来回运送深褐色涂装的大型装备。几乎在每一次执行任务的途中，当他们路过叛乱分子集中的地方，诸如萨达姆.侯赛因的家乡提克里特以及什叶派教徒圣地纳杰夫，路边炸弹如影随形。如果他们及时发现炸弹，爆破物处理小队将迅速把炸弹拆除。但警卫人员并不总是如此幸运：在2004年10月27日，该连军士Jerome Lemon被骑摩托车的自杀人弹夺去生命。Lemon仅仅是八年战争期间牺牲的数百名军事后勤人员中的一员。
The truck drivers' efforts helped establish sprawling bases such as Logistics Support Area Anaconda, just outside the city of Balad. Anaconda's perimeter stretched 12 miles. At its peak, the base was home to more than 36,000 troops and contractors.
在卡车司机的努力帮助下，若干类似于位于Balad市外的蟒蛇后勤保障区的基地得以建立。蟒蛇基地的外围长度达12英里。在顶峰时期，该基地曾经容纳了至少36000名军人和承包商。
Becker's team was essentially charged with reversing this massive and expensive buildup. The dismantling of the U.S. occupation was, fortunately, far less deadly than the build-up. A combined 114 Americans died in Iraqi in 2010 and 2011, compared to an average of 703 per year between 2003 and 2009.
Becker准将团队的主要任务与之前完成的大规模且昂贵的工作相反。幸运的是，美军的撤离任务并非像之前那样危险。在2010和2011两年间仅有114名美军士兵在伊拉克阵亡，而从2003年到2009年平均每年阵亡703名军人。
One by one, the United States emptied out its 505 bases and turned them over to the Iraqi government. In late November, Becker reported that just 317,000 pieces of equipment remained -- enough for 1,700 truckloads. Some equipment was transferred to the Iraqi military, including hundreds of armored vehicles the Army had bought specifically for the Iraq war. The rest backtracked along the same routes that had brought it to Iraq in the first place: First by road to an airbase for a flight back to the United States, or to Kuwait to be shipped by sea.
美军的505个军事基地相继关闭，将它们交给伊拉克政府接管。在去年11月，Becker准将在报告中指出仍然有317000件装备尚未运走---大约是1700辆卡车的运输量。这些装备的一部分，包括数以百计的为伊拉克战争特别采购的装甲车，将移交给伊拉克军方；其它的将被沿着与它们第一次进入伊拉克同样的途径收回：首先通过公路运输至一个空军基地或者科威特的港口，然后空运或者海运回美国。
Iraq's army could make use of many of the vacated facilities, but it's equally possible many of them will simply fall apart. U.S. soldiers have said that Iraqi troops routinely pillage former U.S. bases as soon as they're handed over, stripping them of copper wiring and other valuable materials.
伊拉克军队可能会使用这些空置的设施，但他们也许也会简单地将其拆除。美军士兵曾说过伊拉克士兵通常会抢夺接收的美军基地，将基地中电线的绝缘皮剥去，搜集里面的铜和其它有价值的金属。
The Dec. 1 shutdown of the Air Force's Sather Air Base in Baghdad marked the transfer of the final U.S. base -- although this one is going to the State Department rather than the Iraqi government. Airmen packed up everything, including the shelving and packing material that had once held incoming supplies. "There are literally going to be guys who are working to secure the airfield right up until the moment they run to the plane and take off," said Air Force Col. Michael Gaal, second in command at the base.
在12月1号，位于巴格达的萨瑟空军基地的关闭标志了美军基地移交任务的结束，虽然该基地被移交给了美国国务院而非伊拉克政府。空军飞行员将所有的物品打包，包括原来用于放置补给的架子和包装材料。“这些物品名义上将配发给机场守卫人员直到他们登上飞机起飞的那一刻。”，该基地第二号负责人空军上校Michael Gaal作出上述表示。
And then, of course, there's the departure of the soldiers themselves. U.S. troop levels in Iraq have been steadily decreasing since President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal plan in February 2009, from 146,000 to the 4,000 remaining soldiers today. All but a handful of those are scheduled to depart the country by Dec. 31.
那么接下来当然是士兵自己的撤离。驻伊美军的数目自2009年2月，奥巴马总统宣布撤军计划开始，就不断下降：从当时的146000降至今天的4000。按计划这四千名士兵中的绝大部分将在2011年12月31日前撤出伊拉克。
Sather Air Base is one of the few facilities that will remain in American hands, albeit those of the U.S. State Department. For while the U.S. military is departing Iraq, the diplomats are staying. Sixteen thousand people, including 5,000 contract security guards, staff the U.S. embassy in Baghdad plus several smaller diplomatic facilities. The State Department plans to spend more than $6 billion in Iraq in Iraq next year -- much less than the Pentagon's $50 billion expenditure this year, but not peanuts either. The embassy in Baghdad is one of the largest, most lavish, and most heavily defended in the world.
萨瑟空军基地是美国人控制的少数设施之一，尽管控制权属于国务院。虽然美军正在撤离伊拉克，但外交人员依然存在。共有16000名外交人员，包括5000名安保承包人员，美国驻巴格达大使馆以及若干个小型的外事机构。国务院计划明年在伊拉克花费60亿美元---远少于五角大楼今年的500亿美元预算，但这也并非是一个小数目。美国驻巴格达大使馆是世界上最大、最豪华也是安保措施最严格的大使馆之一。
The State Department's staff will include 150 military advisors, who are tasked with overseeing arms sales to Baghdad. Further proof that even after all the equipment and bases are gone, America's wars never truly end.
国务院的工作人员中将包含150名军事顾问，他们的主要任务是监管对巴格达的武器销售情况。这进一步表明即便撤走了所有的军事装备并关闭了所有的军事基地，美国的伊拉克战争也绝不会真正结束。
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