美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Unveils Ambitious Missile Defense Plans

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

President Trump¹ was at the Pentagon today to unveil his administration's new strategy for missile defense².

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our goal is simple - to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

SHAPIRO: Joining us to discuss how the president plans to meet this goal is NPR's Geoff Brumfiel. Hi, Geoff.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE³: Hi there.

SHAPIRO: So I guess the first question is, who is the U.S. defending itself against? What is the specific threat here?

BRUMFIEL: Well, the names are pretty familiar. There's Iran and North Korea. North Korea is still considered an extraordinary threat according to this report despite the recent overtures⁴ towards peace by the Trump administration. But then also, notably⁵, this report explicitly⁶ calls out Russia and China. And this is really a bit of a change. Russia and China have sort of - U.S. officials have shied away from naming them as threats in previous reports.

SHAPIRO: Russia and China have lots of missiles obviously, so why weren't they already part of the strategy before now?

BRUMFIEL: Well, the problem with defending against their missiles with missile defense is they have so many. They could overwhelm the system. And so basically previous administrations haven't wanted to aggravate⁷ Russia and China. They haven't wanted to sort of provoke them. So they've always said this missile defense is about places like Iran and North Korea. Russia and China - we counter with all our missiles. If they fire at us, we'll fire at them. So, you know, that's sort of been the traditional way we talk about this.

And this report still does some of that, but here's the thing. Russia and China have also been developing missiles to specifically counter U.S. missile defenses. So these are things like hypersonic weapons that can travel over five times the speed of sound. And Russia has a design for a nuclear-powered cruise missile with infinite range, which is kind of a crazy thing. But they are working on it. And so now Trump said today that the U.S. would invest directly in countering these new systems. Critics worry this looks a lot like an arms race.

SHAPIRO: Yeah. Those weapons sound potentially terrifying. What exactly is the U.S. calling for to counter that?

BRUMFIEL: Well, initially⁸ it's all pretty modest and kind of keeping with the normal line. They call for 20 new interceptor missiles at a base in Fort Greely, Alaska. It also calls for a new system to track missiles in space or from space using satellites. Further down the line, there's more advanced stuff, things like lasers to shoot down missiles. And it sort of sounds a bit more like Ronald Reagan's Star Wars program from back in the 1980s.

SHAPIRO: Missile defense has had a spotty track record in the U.S. To make all of this stuff and make all of it work, what - how many billions of dollars are we talking about here?

BRUMFIEL: There's not really a good estimate for what we're talking about today. The lasers and stuff is all R&D, so it's hard to know.

SHAPIRO: Well, what does Trump say about how this will be paid for?

BRUMFIEL: Trump has a great sort of Trumpian response to this. He suggests our allies might pay for it. Here he was earlier today.

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TRUMP: We protect all of these wealthy countries, which I'm very honored to do. But many of them are so wealthy. They can easily pay us the cost of this protection.

BRUMFIEL: But the truth is that really it's going to be the Congress who has to pony⁹ up for this, and that may be difficult with Democrats¹⁰ in the House. They're longtime skeptics of missile defense.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Geoff Brumfiel, thanks a lot.

BRUMFIEL: Thank you so much.

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 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。

4 overtures   

n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲

参考例句：

• Their government is making overtures for peace. 他们的政府正在提出和平建议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had lately begun to make clumsy yet endearing overtures of friendship. 最近他开始主动表示友好，样子笨拙却又招人喜爱。 来自辞典例句

5 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

6 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 aggravate   

vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火

参考例句：

• Threats will only aggravate her.恐吓只能激怒她。
• He would only aggravate the injury by rubbing it.他揉擦伤口只会使伤势加重。

8 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

9 pony   

adj.小型的；n.小马

参考例句：

• His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
• They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。

10 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》