万花筒 2009-12-04&12-06 布朗、卡梅隆议会激辩

The weekend, he said he was looking a transferring at least five Afghan provinces to lead Afghan control by the end of 2010, including parts of Helmand. This was widely interpreted as a commitment to start the withdrawal¹ of British troops in 2010. Well, Prime Minister shakes his head, that is how it was reported on every single media outlet², but, and this is a…, well, this will be a good opportunity for the Prime Minister to clarify this issue. President Obama said the process of transferring forces out of Afghanistan would not even begin until the middle of 2011. It is important we don’t give false expectations to British troops or mixed messages to anybody else, so, can the Prime Minister clarify whether he would expect British troop numbers to start with reducing in 2010 or 2011?

Mr. Speaker, I made it absolutely clear at the press conference that if you read the full transcript³ or he would know that there was no question, there was no question of us withdrawing our British troops until the point that we were sure that the Afghans could take over security control themselves. Now even if one or two parts of the district or province are transferred in 2010, we will continue to have our troops in Afghanistan at that point. My point earlier was that by 2011 there will be over 300,000 troops both Afghanistan, American, British and coalition⁴ troops and that is the point to which the balance between Afghan forces and British, American and coalition troops will start to change.
 

1 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。

2 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。