美国国家公共电台 NPR 不满俩“总统”争权 美削减10亿美元对阿援助

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. will cut a billion dollars in U.S. aid to Afghanistan. Why? Well, the U.S. is frustrated¹ that two men are claiming to be Afghanistan's President. Ashraf Ghani was officially declared the winner last month. But his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, says there was voter fraud and that he's the winner. Now their fight has jeopardized² theprospects of a U.S.-brokered peace deal between the Afghan central government and theTaliban.

美国国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥表示，美国将削减10亿美元对阿富汗援助。为什么？因为美国对有两个人宣布就任阿富汗总统的局面感到失望。阿什拉夫·加尼于上个月被正式宣布为获胜者。但他的竞争对手阿卜杜拉·阿卜杜拉称，选举存在舞弊行为，他才是胜者。现在，二人的斗争已经危及阿富汗中央政府和塔利班在美国斡旋下所达成和平协议的前景。

I'm on the line now with Laurel Miller³. She's director of the International Crisis Group's Asiaprogram, and before that, she served as the deputy special representative for Afghanistanand Pakistan at the State Department. Good morning.

下面我将和劳雷尔·米勒连线。她是国际危机组织亚洲项目负责人，此前曾担任美国国务院阿富汗和巴基斯坦问题副特别代表。早上好。

LAUREL MILLER: Good morning.

劳雷尔·米勒：早上好。

KING: Let's get right to the heart of this. Why is it a problem for the United States that twomen are claiming to be the rightful president of Afghanistan?

金：让我们直奔主题。为什么两个人声称自己是阿富汗的合法总统对美国来说是个问题？

MILLER: The main problem for the United States right now is that U.S. policy is focused ontrying to get a peace process in Afghanistan launched, a peace process that would enable theU.S. to pull its troops out of the country. And this dispute between these two contestants⁴ forthe presidency⁵ is now tangled⁶ up with the peace process. It is inhibiting⁷ their ability to puttogether a negotiating team to sit across the table from the Taliban. The U.S. and Talibansigned a preliminary deal on February 29 that had called for those Afghan peace talks to starton March 10. That date has come and gone, in part — in large part because of this inability toform a negotiating team.

米勒：美国目前面临的主要问题是，美国政策的重点是努力启动阿富汗的和平进程，该进程将使美国得以从阿富汗撤军。而两名总统职位竞争者之间的分歧现在已使这一和平进程纠缠在一起。这阻碍了他们组建与塔利班协商的谈判团队的能力。美国和塔利班于2月29日签署了一份初步协议，要求3月10日启动阿富汗和谈。这一日期匆匆而过，很大程度上是因为无法组建谈判团队。

KING: So when the U.S. negotiated the peace deal with the Taliban — which our listeners willremember — we covered that a great deal at the time — part of the agreement was the Afghangovernment is not privy⁸ to these talks yet. And we're going to — the U.S. and the Taliban aregoing to seal the deal. But then the Afghan government will come in, and then they will talk tothe Taliban. And then it will get done. And what you're saying is it's not getting done.

金：在美国与塔利班协商和平协议时，我们的听众应该记得，我们当时报道过这份重要协议，阿富汗政府尚未参与这些谈判。美国和塔利班将达成协议。随后阿富汗政府加入，他们将与塔利班进行对话。之后，达成协议。但你的意思是这项工作未能完成。

MILLER: Exactly. It was intended to be a sequenced process. First, the U.S.-Taliban talks thatwould focus on the question of a phased U.S. withdrawal⁹ from Afghanistan, a militarywithdrawal from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban commitments not to allow Afghanistanto be a safe harbor for terrorist groups in the future. And importantly, though, that agreementhad then called for the Taliban to agree to finally sit down with the Afghan government andother Afghans in peace talks. And now the holdup is on the side in Kabul where, as I said, they've been unable to do their part so far in getting these peace talks moving.

米勒：没错。这本应是一个有序的过程。首先，美国与塔利班的会谈将集中讨论美军分阶段撤离阿富汗的问题，用从阿富汗撤军换取塔利班承诺未来不允许阿富汗成为恐怖分子的安全港。不过，重要的是，这项协议随后要求塔利班同意在和谈中与阿富汗政府及其他阿富汗人进行对话。现在，喀布尔一方出现拖延，我刚才提到过，他们到目前为止一直无法在推动和谈方面尽到自己的职责。

KING: So a frustrated Mike Pompeo says the United States will cut a billion dollars in aid toAfghanistan. How big a deal is that?

金：因此，失望的迈克·蓬佩奥表示，美国将削减10亿美元对阿富汗援助。这有多重要？

MILLER: That's a huge deal. Currently, the U.S. gives to Afghanistan around $500 million ayear in civilian¹⁰ assistance — or that's assistance for civilian purposes and, this year, about $4.2 billion in assistance for its security forces. The Afghan government is existentiallydependent on this aid from the United States. It gets aid from other sources, too, but this isthe biggest portion of aid that it receives. So a billion-dollar cut is — even if it entirely¹¹ wipedout all of the assistance for civilian purposes, would also cut into the aid for the securityforces.

米勒：这很重要。目前，美国每年向阿富汗提供约5亿美元的民事援助，或者说是用于民事目的的援助，今年，美国计划向阿富汗安全部队提供约42亿美元的援助。阿富汗政府的生存依赖美国的援助。阿富汗也从其他来源获得援助，但美国援助在其接受的援助中占最大份额。因此，削减10亿美元意味着，即使取消所有民用援助，也要削减提供给安全部队的援助。

KING: Are civilians¹², though, the people who are likely to be hurt by this?

金：那平民是否有可能因此受到伤害？

MILLER: Look; the Afghan people are certainly likely to be hurt by this and, frankly¹³, by theactions of Afghan politicians who have brought the situation to this path.

米勒：阿富汗民众肯定会因此受到伤害，坦白来说，他们会因使局势演变为这种情况的阿富汗政治家的行动受到伤害。

KING: Laurel Miller of the International Crisis Group joining us by Skype.

金：以上是国际危机组织的劳雷尔·米勒通过Skype和我们进行的连线。

Thanks so much, Laurel.

非常感谢你，劳雷尔。

MILLER: It was my pleasure.

米勒：不客气。

1 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 jeopardized   

危及，损害( jeopardize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The soldier jeopardized his life to save his comrade. 这个士兵冒生命的危险救他的同志。
• The occasional failed project or neglected opportunity does not jeopardized overall progress. 偶然失败的项目或失误的机会并没有影响总的进展。

3 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

4 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

6 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

7 inhibiting   

抑制作用的，约束的

参考例句：

• The high cost of borrowing is inhibiting investment by industry in new equipment. 借款的高成本抑制了企业对新设备的投资。
• The pesticides affect the nervous system by inhibiting the enzyme cholinesterase. 这类农药抑制胆碱酯酶而影响神经系统。

8 privy   

adj.私用的；隐密的

参考例句：

• Only three people,including a policeman,will be privy to the facts.只会允许3个人，其中包括一名警察，了解这些内情。
• Very few of them were privy to the details of the conspiracy.他们中很少有人知道这一阴谋的详情。

9 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。

10 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

11 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

12 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

13 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。