2015年经济学人 英国在伊拉克 卡梅伦的狼狈

Britain in Iraq

Cameron's confusions

The government flip-flops between belligerence¹ and caution

HOW seriously does the British government take the threat from Islamic State (IS),

an extremist group which has taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria?

Despite a flurry of pronouncements from the prime minister and from Michael Fallon,

Britain's defence secretary, it is growing increasingly hard to judge.

Writing in a newspaper on August 17th, David Cameron warned that Britain faces a “generational struggle” against a “poisonous ideology”.

Striking a Churchillian tone, the prime minister argued that Britain's very security depended on the country using all its resources,

aid, diplomacy² and “military prowess” to vanquish³ this enemy. Tough stuff—perhaps the toughest from any Western leader so far.

Yet before leaving on holiday the following day Mr Cameron assured journalists that this fiery⁴ rhetoric⁵ did not mean Britain was returning to war in Iraq,

and that he had no intention to put “boots on the ground” against IS.

That was before the release of a horrific video on August 19th showing the beheading of a captured American journalist,

James Foley, by an IS militant⁶ who appeared to have a British accent.

Mr Cameron rushed back from his break in Cornwall to confer with ministers in London.

Confusion already surrounds the work Britain's armed forces are presently performing in Iraq.

Tornado⁷ bombers⁸, helicopters, a spy plane, and some special forces are all operating in the north of the country—in particular near the city of Mosul.

The government has said these efforts are merely humanitarian⁹, intended to help refugees besieged¹⁰ by IS fighters (see picture).

Yet on August 18th Mr Fallon was reported to have said that British forces were performing reconnaissance missions for Kurdish soldiers battling the jihadists.

Some think Britain is also supplying the Kurds with communications equipment and training.

What explains this prevarication¹¹? Mr Cameron is doubtless eager to avoid a repeat of the fiasco last year,

when the House of Commons voted against his urging that British forces intervene against the murderous regime of Syria's President Assad.

As well as shattering Western resolve, the episode was a personal humiliation¹² for the prime minister.

If the government sounds too bellicose¹³ pressure will grow to recall parliament, currently in its summer recess¹⁴, for a full debate.

Another risk is that Mr Cameron's pronouncements outstrip¹⁵ America's eagerness to act,

leaving Britain isolated¹⁶ should the Obama administration commit itself no further.

And the prime minister also has a war-weary public to contend with.

Polls suggest that a large minority of Britons would support taking some limited action against IS, such as arming the Kurds.

But winning public support for a larger scale conflict, however worthy¹⁷ the cause, looks almost impossible at present.

Mr Foley's murder may change this. His hooded¹⁸ killer's London accent has focused attention on the thousands of European—and particularly British—Muslims which IS has drawn¹⁹ to its banner.

Thomas Hegghammer of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment argues that this represents the “largest European Muslim foreign fighter contingent” that has gone to any conflict in modern history.

As many as 500 of them are thought to be British.

The clear risk is that these callow, inexperienced volunteers will return home as hardened and skilful²⁰ jihadists,

ready, as Mr Cameron puts it, to “target us on the streets of Britain”.

Experts disagree on the scale of that threat. But even a very small number of returning extremists could cause considerable harm.

After haring back to Whitehall, the prime minister said authorities would redouble efforts to track down British jihadists,

and that the grisly video would not lead Britain to ramp²¹ up its involvement in the conflict.

There is a limit to how long Mr Cameron can keep his options open.

1 belligerence   

n.交战，好战性，斗争性

参考例句：

• He could be accused of passion,but never belligerence.可以说他很冲动，但不能说他爱挑事。
• He was almost back to his belligerent mood of twelve months ago.他故态复萌，几乎又像一年前那样咄咄逼人了。

2 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

3 vanquish   

v.征服，战胜；克服；抑制

参考例句：

• He tried to vanquish his fears.他努力克服恐惧心理。
• It is impossible to vanquish so strong an enemy without making an extensive and long-term effort.现在要战胜这样一个强敌，非有长期的广大的努力是不可能的。

4 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

5 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

6 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

7 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

8 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 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。

10 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

11 prevarication   

n.支吾；搪塞；说谎；有枝有叶

参考例句：

• The longer negotiations drag on, the greater the risk of permanent prevarication. 谈判拖延的时间越久，长期推诿责任的可能性就越大。 来自互联网
• The result can be a lot of needless prevarication. 结果就是带来一堆的借口。 来自互联网

12 humiliation   

n.羞辱

参考例句：

• He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
• He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。

13 bellicose   

adj.好战的；好争吵的

参考例句：

• He expressed alarm about the government's increasingly bellicose statements.他对政府越来越具挑衅性的声明表示担忧。
• Some irresponsible politicians made a bellicose remarks.一些不负责任的政客说出一些好战的话语。

14 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

15 outstrip   

v.超过，跑过

参考例句：

• He can outstrip his friend both in sports and in studies.他能在体育和学习方面胜过他的朋友。
• It is possible for us to outstrip the advanced countries in the world.我们能超过世界上先进的国家。

16 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

17 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

18 hooded   

adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的

参考例句：

• A hooded figure waited in the doorway. 一个戴兜帽的人在门口等候。
• Black-eyed gipsy girls, hooded in showy handkerchiefs, sallied forth to tell fortunes. 黑眼睛的吉卜赛姑娘，用华丽的手巾包着头，突然地闯了进来替人算命。 来自辞典例句

19 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

20 skilful   

(=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的

参考例句：

• The more you practise,the more skilful you'll become.练习的次数越多，熟练的程度越高。
• He's not very skilful with his chopsticks.他用筷子不大熟练。

21 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。