美国国家公共电台 NPR In A Tumultuous Administration, Defense Secretary Endures

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

All right. So it's not just China and North Korea. President Trump¹ has had a lot to say on matters of defense² lately. He tweeted that Iran would suffer historic consequences if it threatened the U.S., he scolded NATO allies, and he discussed security privately³ with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. That is all clear. What's not clear is what role Defense Secretary James Mattis has had in any of this. So NPR's David Welna decided⁴ to ask, what is the status of Mattis in this administration?

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE⁵: Secretary Mattis kept an unusually low profile at the NATO summit in Brussels while President Trump stole the show, browbeating⁶ NATO allies over their defense spending. But as Mattis flew over Europe after the summit, he sardonically⁷ dismissed reports that he and the top brass⁸ back home were trying to patch things up with their friends in NATO.

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JAMES MATTIS: I just heard about this story that the Pentagon is in damage control. That was fascinating. I love reading fiction.

WELNA: But Mattis and Trump's differences over NATO do go way back. Last year, in the first and only lengthy⁹ TV interview he has done as Pentagon chief, Mattis recalled on CBS his job interview with President-elect Trump, a man he'd never met before.

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MATTIS: And he brought up his question about NATO. And my response was that I thought that if we didn't have NATO, that he would want to create it because it's a defense of our values, it's a defense of democracy. He was very open to that.

WELNA: For Trump, Mattis' renown¹⁰ as a battle-hardened Marine¹¹ had a clear appeal, as did a nickname Mattis himself hates. Here's Trump revealing his choice for Pentagon chief to a crowd in Cincinnati.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We are going to appoint Mad Dog Mattis...

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: ...As our secretary of defense.

WELNA: It was a job, Mattis said at his confirmation¹² hearing, he was not angling to get.

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MATTIS: When this unanticipated request came, I was enjoying a full life west of the Rockies. I was not involved in the presidential campaign, and I was certainly not seeking or envisioning a position in any new administration.

WELNA: James Carafano of The Heritage Foundation was on Trump's transition team. He says Mattis' politics hardly match Trump's.

JAMES CARAFANO: He's not a conservative. He's actually probably more comfortable sitting in a cocktail¹³ lounge with people from the last administration. And he's certainly not comfortable at all in the political realm.

WELNA: Unlike Trump's other Cabinet secretaries, Mattis conspicuously¹⁴ did not praise the president at the first full Cabinet meeting last year. Last week, he was a no-show at the first Cabinet meeting after Trump's Helsinki's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

CHUCK HAGEL: I think Secretary Mattis is in a more difficult situation than any secretary of defense we've ever had.

WELNA: Chuck Hagel would know. This former Nebraska Republican senator was himself defense secretary during the Obama administration.

HAGEL: You've got a president of the United States saying things that we've really never heard before from a commander in chief. And then the secretary of defense has to go back around and reassure¹⁵ our allies and our partners - well, the president really didn't mean that, or this is what he really did mean, or don't worry about it; we're going to be OK.

WELNA: Mattis did chalk up some early wins as defense secretary. Trump says Mattis convinced him not to support torture. Mattis was also authorized¹⁶ to set troop levels in Afghanistan, and he managed to keep Trump on board with the Iran nuclear deal. But since then, Trump's dumped the nuclear deal, pulled out of the Paris climate accord that Mattis backed and established a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, a move Mattis had opposed.

MARA KARLIN: He's still being called the secretary of reassurance¹⁷. That said, this is all just getting a whole lot tougher.

WELNA: Especially after the Helsinki summit, says Mara Karlin, a senior adviser¹⁸ to five other defense secretaries. Karlin says Mattis has been trying to shift the Pentagon's focus from fighting terrorists to confronting great powers, namely China and Russia.

KARLIN: So now Secretary Mattis and his team have some very hard questions to reconcile. Is it that China and Russia are still a top priority, or is Russia no longer top of the list?

LEON PANETTA: The question is, how long can he continue to do this?

WELNA: That's Leon Panetta, another defense secretary from the Obama administration.

PANETTA: Knowing Jim Mattis, there is a line that he is not going to stand around and allow to be crossed, particularly when it comes to serious decisions regarding our U.S. forces.

WELNA: Mattis got blindsided last month when Trump called off military exercises with South Korea. But Panetta thinks he can live with that as long as it's temporary. The Heritage Foundation's Carafano does not see why Mattis would quit.

CARAFANO: So Mattis should resign because he doesn't like Trump's style? Mattis is much more of an adult like that, and he knows what's actually getting done. So I think the scenario¹⁹ of Mattis quits because he can't take it anymore - I think that's very unlikely.

WELNA: It may come down to whether Mattis feels he's lost his say on the use of force with a commander in chief who is now threatening action against Iran.

David Welna, NPR News, Washington.

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1 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。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 browbeating   

v.（以言辞或表情）威逼，恫吓( browbeat的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Mr Zha urges America to refrain from browbeating China into accepting distant targets for future reductions. 查先生敦促美国不要威胁中国为今后减少排放而去接受这遥远的目标。 来自互联网

7 sardonically   

adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地

参考例句：

• Some say sardonically that combat pay is good and that one can do quite well out of this war. 有些人讽刺地说战地的薪饷很不错，人们可借这次战争赚到很多钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Tu Wei-yueh merely drew himself up and smiled sardonically. 屠维岳把胸脯更挺得直些，微微冷笑。 来自子夜部分

8 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

9 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

10 renown   

n.声誉，名望

参考例句：

• His renown has spread throughout the country.他的名声已传遍全国。
• She used to be a singer of some renown.她曾是位小有名气的歌手。

11 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

12 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

13 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

14 conspicuously   

ad.明显地，惹人注目地

参考例句：

• France remained a conspicuously uneasy country. 法国依然是个明显不太平的国家。
• She figured conspicuously in the public debate on the issue. 她在该问题的公开辩论中很引人注目。

15 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

16 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

17 reassurance   

n.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• He drew reassurance from the enthusiastic applause.热烈的掌声使他获得了信心。
• Reassurance is especially critical when it comes to military activities.消除疑虑在军事活动方面尤为关键。

18 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

19 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。