【英语语言学习】无人机计划

LYNN NEARY, HOST:

Few people know the ins and outs of power politics in the nation's capital better than Richard A. Clarke. He served three presidents and as national coordinator¹ for security and counterterrorism, he was instrumental in developing the nation's armed drone program.

In his new thriller², "The Sting of the Drone," Clark uses his insider's knowledge to bring readers right into the boardrooms and bunkers where the decisions to launch a drone attack are made. In creating fictional³ Air Force pilots who spend their days guiding drones to targets thousands of miles away, Clarke puts a human face on the drone program and also raises some surprising questions about it.

RICHARD CLARKE: These things are actually airplanes that function like fighter planes except they can stay up for a really long time. They can stay up for 24 hours at a time. And as the pilot, you sort of have the sensation that you are in Pakistan. You know, you're looking down. You're seeing everything. But then when your shift is done, you leave the air-conditioned, darkened room and you walk out and you're in Las Vegas.

NEARY: Yeah. Does that seem wrong to you somehow that they can kill people that precisely⁴ and then leave it behind so easily?

CLARKE: I don't think it's wrong. I think the prior question is should we be using lethal⁵ force to kill terrorists? And if the answer is occasionally yes, then this is a very safe way to do it because the American pilot is not put at risk. It's highly accurate.

Despite that however, there are times when, as in Yemen recently, we blow up a wedding and we kill innocent people. And you get this cycle of revenge killing⁶ and revenge killing after that.

NEARY: Well, at one point in the book, there's an attack on a group of targets, as they're called. And they're in a luxury hotel in Vienna. And the drone comes in and blows them up as they're sharing cigars, I think. How plausible⁷ is that?

CLARKE: Well, I think that episode is meant to ask the question, what are the limits? Here the drone operators think they can do the attack. They can do it precisely. There will be no collateral⁸ damage.

By doing the attack, they stop a big terrorist attack that was going to take place. And the Austrian security authorities wink⁹, wink, nod, nod, and say, go ahead. Just pretend we didn't know about it. There's a lot of truth in that. That happens from time to time. Not drone attacks in Austria, but that sort of thing. And it does ask the question, where are the limits?

NEARY: Of course, in this story, the victims fight back with very serious consequences. And you know, certainly that sets up of dramatic tension in your fictional world. But it seems like you're kind of sending a little bit of a warning out there saying, you know, be aware that this can be used against you. Is this where we're headed in the real world, too?

CLARKE: Well, the FBI has already arrested people in the United States who it alleges¹⁰ were plotting to use mini drones, commercially available model airplane kind of drones, put explosives in them, and attack things like the Pentagon. I think as drones become more and more available around the world - and there are a lot of them now, a lot of countries have them - we probably will face the day when the United States is the target of drones. And then we will have to wonder if this all was worth it.

NEARY: Now you were, of course, involved in developing the drone program for the United States, correct?

CLARKE: I was. I pushed very hard to develop the drone program, to find and to take out Osama bin¹¹ Laden¹². Unfortunately, that wasn't done in time.

NEARY: So in this book, are you working out some conflicted feelings you might have about where the program's going, where the program is at right now?

CLARKE: I'm trying, in the first instance, to create a thriller that readers will enjoy and to take them behind the curtain to see things that they would never get a chance to see. And at the same time, raise questions that should be asked in every American's minds about, you know, what is it that we're doing? And is this the right thing to do? And what are the risks that we run when we do it?

NEARY: When I first, you know, saw this book, I wondered if it was going to be, you were going to be the next Tom Clancy, writing books about drone warfare¹³ in the way he wrote about submarine warfare. But I don't get a sense that there's a series of books here.

CLARKE: Well, there's not a series of books about drones. I'm certainly trying to get that same thriller, page turner effect that you get from the Clancy novels. But I think I've said enough about drones in this book for a while.

NEARY: When all is said and done, do you think that the drone program was worth it, is it worth having - does more good than harm?

CLARKE: I think we used it, perhaps, in excess. The president has tried now with new rules to walk it back. It was a very limited program when it started, designed to kill only high level Al Qaeda leaders and only those in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And now we've used it in at least five countries. And it's caused a great deal of resentment¹⁴ towards the United States in countries like Yemen, like Somalia, like Pakistan.

It's probably too early to judge whether or not the program was counterproductive. It certainly did take out a lot of the Al Qaeda leadership. But it becomes an addiction¹⁵. It lures¹⁶ you in because it's the only thing that seems to be working in the counterterrorism program. You do more of it and more of it and more of it. And then one day, you wake up and realize you've done too much.

NEARY: Richard A. Clarke's new book is called "Sting of the Drone." Thanks for talking with us.

CLARKE: Thank you.

1 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

2 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

3 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

4 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

5 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

6 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

7 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

8 collateral   

adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品

参考例句：

• Many people use personal assets as collateral for small business loans.很多人把个人财产用作小额商业贷款的抵押品。
• Most people here cannot borrow from banks because they lack collateral.由于拿不出东西作为抵押，这里大部分人无法从银行贷款。

9 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。

10 alleges   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The newspaper article alleges that the mayor is corrupt. 报纸上断言该市长腐败。
• Steven was tardy this morning and alleges that his bus was late. 史提芬今天早上迟到的说词是公车误点了。

11 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

12 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

13 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

14 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

15 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

16 lures   

吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式）

参考例句：

• He left home because of the lures of life in the city. 他离家是由于都市生活的诱惑。
• Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an unexpected discovery that lures men down to the depths of the earth. 可能正是寻觅幽静的去处，或者找个猎奇的机会的欲望引诱着人们进入地球的深处。