VOA慢速英语2021--拜登为美国撤军辩护

Kabul Airport in Chaos¹, Biden Defends US Withdrawal²

Thousands of Afghans sought to flee the capital Kabul on Monday, a day after Taliban fighters seized the city.

Hundreds of people ran alongside an American military transport plane as it tried to take off at Kabul's international airport. Some climbed onto the sides of the aircraft in hopes of finding a way out of the mountainous, land-locked country.

Videos on social media also showed hundreds of people running across the runway. U.S. soldiers fired warning shots into the air as they sought to keep the area secure. Another video showed a crowd pushing and forcing its way up a set of stairs, trying to board another plane. Some of the people were seen hanging onto the plane just before takeoff.

Shafi Arifi, a 24-year-old man who had a ticket to travel to Uzbekistan on Sunday, was unable to board his plane. It was filled with people who had raced across the runway and climbed aboard.

"There was no room for us to stand," Arifi told The Associated Press. "Children were crying, women were shouting, young and old men were so angry and upset, no one could hear each other. There was no oxygen to breathe."

American military officials told the AP the situation at the airport had left seven dead, including several people who fell from the plane. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said U.S. forces killed two people he described as carrying weapons. He said 1,000 more U.S. troops would be deployed⁴ to secure the airfield⁵ and back up the 2,500 already there. All flights at the airport were halted until people could be cleared from the runway, Kirby added.

The airport chaos came a day after Taliban militants⁶ entered Kabul on Sunday without firing a shot. The Taliban's arrival led Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to fly out of the country with his vice⁷ president and other senior officials.

A group of Taliban fighters took control of the presidential grounds at night after a 9-day offensive that faced little resistance across Afghanistan. The speed of the Taliban offensive has shocked both locals and the international community.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is a Taliban leader involved in peace talks with the U.S. and the Afghan government. He spoke³ in a video message to Afghans from his office in Doha, Qatar. "I am here to announce that we are responsible for your lives and all that pertain⁸ to everyday living," Baradar said.

He added, "we will provide everything to make your lives better to the strength that has been provided to us by the Almighty⁹ who has granted us such a big victory."

Baradar's office also released a video of him watching live television coverage¹⁰ of Taliban fighters entering the presidential grounds in Kabul.

Biden and the international community speak

Speaking from the White House on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said, "The scenes that we're seeing in Afghanistan, they're gut-wrenching." He added, "For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan, and for Americans who have fought and served in the country, serve our country in Afghanistan. This is deeply, deeply personal. It is for me as well."

Biden defended his decision to withdraw American troops from the 20-year conflict. He said, "American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday the world was following events in Afghanistan "with a heavy heart and deep disquiet¹¹ about what lies ahead." He told an emergency meeting of the Security Council: "We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan. At this grave hour, I urge all parties, especially the Taliban, to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian¹² needs can be met." Guterres added, "I am particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations¹³ against the women and girls of Afghanistan, who fear a return to the darkest days."

How did the Taliban come to power?

The Taliban was formed in the 1990s to fight against the Soviet¹⁴ occupation of Afghanistan. After the Soviet withdrawal, the group won a two-year civil war and ran the country from 1996 to 2001 under severe Islamic law.

In 2001, a U.S.-led invasion ousted¹⁵ the group for providing refuge to Osama bin¹⁶ Laden¹⁷ and al-Qaida - the extremist group that attacked and killed 3,000 Americans in the terrorist event known as September 11. The Taliban then re-grouped across the border in Pakistan to fight against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

In 2020, the Taliban signed a peace agreement with the U.S. under the administration of former President Donald Trump¹⁸. The agreement called for the U.S. to withdraw its forces by May 1, 2021, and for the Taliban to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the Afghan government.

On April 14, President Biden announced that U.S. troops would be fully¹⁹ withdrawn²⁰ by Sept. 11, 2021. U.S. forces, however, left Bagram airfield at the end of June, effectively ending U.S. military involvement in the country. Bagram Airfield had remained the center of American military power in the country during the 20-year war.

After the U.S. withdrawal from Bagram, the Taliban stepped up its offensive against the Afghan government. It captured the first of many provincial²¹ capitals on August 6. Less than 10 days later, Kabul fell, the government collapsed²² and the U.S. and Western nations worked to evacuate²³ its embassies, employees and allies.

The scene in Kabul

On Monday, the Taliban deployed fighters on the streets of Kabul with most people hiding in their homes. The Associated Press reported there was less traffic than usual as armed men knocked on doors and searched vehicles at one of the city's main centers.

Nillan, a 27-year-old resident of Kabul, said she did not see a single woman out on the streets during a 15-minute drive. She said she saw "only men and boys."

"It feels like time has stopped. Everything's changed," she told the AP. Nillan added that Afghan women now have to worry about simple things like how to get food without a man by their side.

"We don't know what to do, we don't know if we still have jobs," she said. "It feels like our life and our future has ended."

Words in This Story

upset – adj. unhappy or worried about something

chaos – n. a situation in which there is not order

pertain – v. to relate to something

grant – v. to give or permit something

gut-wrenching - adj. extremely upsetting or unpleasant

abandon – v. to leave someone or something in a place

evacuate – v. to remove a person or groups of people from a dangerous place

1 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

2 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

5 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

6 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 pertain   

v.(to)附属，从属；关于；有关；适合，相称

参考例句：

• His remark did not pertain to the question.他的话同这个问题不相干。
• It does not pertain to you to instruct him.你不适合教训他。

9 almighty   

adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的

参考例句：

• Those rebels did not really challenge Gods almighty power.这些叛徒没有对上帝的全能力量表示怀疑。
• It's almighty cold outside.外面冷得要命。

10 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

11 disquiet   

n.担心，焦虑

参考例句：

• The disquiet will boil over in the long run.这种不安情绪终有一天会爆发的。
• Her disquiet made us uneasy too.她的忧虑使我们也很不安。

12 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

13 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

14 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

15 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

16 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

17 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

18 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

19 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

20 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

21 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

22 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

23 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。