【英语语言学习】罂粟

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

 

Several Afghan officials have been suspended following an attack on the popular restaurant in Kabul, Afghanistan which left 21 people dead. It was the deadliest violence against foreign civilians² since the war began. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation³ for recent a airstrike that killed a number of Afghan civilians in a village north of the capital. The violence is the latest indication that the situation in Afghanistan is far from stable.

 

As the U.S. prepares to draw down forces after more than 12 years of war, a lot of the political unrest in Afghanistan is rooted in the opium⁴ industry. The U.S. alone has funneled⁵ billions of dollars into the country to fight the narcotics⁶ trade. But now, the man in charge of overseeing how U.S. dollars are spent in Afghanistan says there's very little to show for that investment.

 

John Sopko is the Special Inspector⁷ General for Afghanistan Reconstruction⁸ and he said exactly that to a Senate panel this past week. He joined us in our studios to talk about his findings. And I started off by asking him about the state of the drug trade.

 

JOHN SOPKO: They're growing more poppy now and introducing more opium than ever before.

 

MARTIN: How in the world is that possible? I mean, when you think of all the aid that has been put into that country specifically to address that particular issue - billions of dollars from the U.S. alone, let alone all the international partners who've been focusing on this.

 

SOPKO: Well, the big problem we have found is we really don't have a strategy and it's no longer a priority, and it hasn't been a priority for the U.S. or for Western governments for a number of years. And if it's not a priority and you don't have a strategy - a real strategy on how to do it - you're going to have failure, and that's what we've seen. Right now, our strategy is nothing other than a bunch of wish lists that we hope the Afghans can do something, but they're not able to.

 

MARTIN: But wasn't there a strategy before? I mean, early on, after the U.S. overthrew⁹ the Taliban, Afghanistan was full of civilian¹ advisers¹⁰ from America and Europe who were there to help Afghan farmers figure out what else to grow.

 

SOPKO: Well, we've changed the strategy over time. And we've emphasized, like you said, crop substitution. We actually did interdiction¹¹. But we tend to do it for a month, a year or whatever, and then we go and do something else. We had a very successful program in Helmand, with the Helmand Food Zone. But that was part of the surge. Once the surge ended, once then we stopped the program, now Helmand is producing more opium then it was before.

 

MARTIN: This is the last year, as of yet, that U.S. combat troops are going to be on the ground. International assistance has been dramatically reduced. The number of civilians who are working on aid projects, like poppy eradication¹², have left the country. Does some of the impetus¹³ for change need to happen within Afghanistan itself?

 

SOPKO: Well, obviously this is not going to work unless the Afghans have a will to pursue this. That's what I'm really concerned about, is because we will have less mobility¹⁴. So we look at reconstruction and our concern is, now more than ever, reconstruction and any gains we made in reconstruction are in peril¹⁵.

 

Because the narco traffickers don't care about women's rights, they don't care about better health care, they don't care about better education for the Afghans. They don't care about rule law. They actually opposed the rule of law. And what is happening is this is a bigger threat now than ever.

 

MARTIN: At what point do you cut your losses and say, there is no way that we can fix this problem to a level where it makes sense to continue funneling¹⁶ U.S. taxpayer¹⁷ dollars in this direction?

 

SOPKO: Well, let me back up and answer that question. It's a difficult one. Remember, I don't do policy. We just look at the process and look at the programs. I can say the money that has been used so far, if the goal was to reduce cultivation¹⁸, we failed. If the goal was to reduce opium production, we failed. If the goal was to reduce the amount of money going to the insurgency¹⁹, we failed. If the goal was to break that narco trafficking nexus²⁰ and the corrupting²¹ influence, we have failed. I can tell you that.

 

All you have to do is look at the data. All you have to do is look at the statements made even by the DOD itself in the latest report to Congress about the failures.

 

MARTIN: What makes you so sure if we have seemingly wasted $10 billion already, that we would have the capacity to use future monies differently and more wisely?

 

SOPKO: That is the question I asked in Afghanistan. And no one in the embassy, no one at our military ISAF headquarters could explain to me how we were going to do a better job, or how we were doing a good job right now on counter narcotics.

 

MARTIN: Have you met with people at USAID? Have you gotten honest conversations about what is failed?

 

SOPKO: Well, we don't always get honest conversations. Very few people, particularly at some of the higher levels want to talk about failure. I was not overly impressed with the explanations given to me by anyone at our embassy, or anybody at ISAF. As a matter of fact, when I interviewed the country team leader for AID, he couldn't even explain the counter narcotics program to me. So this indicates to me is this isn't a priority, and that's very disturbing because this is a national security issue.

 

Early on, we determined²² that we had to cut that nexus between the narco traffickers, and they're providing now 30 percent of the revenue to the Taliban and the other terrorist groups. Narcotics is, we haven't broken that.

 

MARTIN: John Sopko is the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. He joined us in our studios here in Washington. Thanks so much.

 

Thanks so much for coming in.

 

SOPKO: You're welcome.

 

MARTIN: We reached out to the U.S. State Department for their response about Mr. Sopko's remarks. Larry Sampler, at USAID, said that the staff in Kabul is working very hard and at great personal risk. He went on to say, quote, "We all need to acknowledge it is a complicated problem with only long-term solutions."

1 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。

2 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。

3 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

5 funneled   

漏斗状的

参考例句：

• The crowd funneled through the hall. 群众从走廊中鱼贯而过。
• The large crowd funneled out of the gates after the football match. 足球赛后大群人从各个门中涌出。

6 narcotics   

n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 )；毒品；毒

参考例句：

• The use of narcotics by teenagers is a problem in many countries. 青少年服用麻醉药在许多国家中都是一个问题。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Police shook down the club, looking for narcotics. 警方彻底搜查了这个俱乐部，寻找麻醉品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

8 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

9 overthrew   

overthrow的过去式

参考例句：

• The people finally rose up and overthrew the reactionary regime. 人们终于起来把反动的政权推翻了。
• They overthrew their King. 他们推翻了国王。

10 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

11 interdiction   

n.禁止；封锁

参考例句：

• the Customs Service's drug interdiction programs 海关的毒品查禁方案
• In addition to patrol duty, blastboats are dispatched for planetary defense and interdiction missions. 除了例行巡逻，炮艇还被赋予行星防御和封锁的任务。

12 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

13 impetus   

n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力

参考例句：

• This is the primary impetus behind the economic recovery.这是促使经济复苏的主要动力。
• Her speech gave an impetus to my ideas.她的讲话激发了我的思绪。

14 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

15 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

16 funneling   

[医]成漏斗形：描述膀胱底及膀胱尿道交接区

参考例句：

17 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

18 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

19 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

20 nexus   

n.联系；关系

参考例句：

• Shared ambition is the vital nexus between them.共同的志向是把他们联结在一起的重要纽带。
• Either way,the nexus between the consumer and consumer prices is important.无论那个方面，消费者与消费价格之间的关系是至关重要的。

21 corrupting   

（使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏

参考例句：

• It would be corrupting discipline to leave him unpunished. 不惩治他会败坏风纪。
• It would be corrupting military discipline to leave him unpunished. 不惩治他会败坏军纪。

22 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。