VOA常速英语2014--奥巴马权衡化解伊拉克危机方案（在线收听）

Obama Weighs in on Iraq Crisis 奥巴马权衡化解伊拉克危机方案

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama continues to rule out sending U.S. combat forces to Iraq, while voicing concern about Sunni militants who have seized large swaths of territory north of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the Iraqi crisis has emboldened critics of Obama’s foreign policy, including an architect of the Iraq War launched in 2003: former Vice President Dick Cheney.

美国总统奥巴马仍排除派遣美国作战部队前往伊拉克的可能性，但他对逊尼派激进分子占领巴格达北部大部分地区表示关切。美国之音记者鲍曼报道说，伊拉克危机加大了对奥巴马外交政策的批评，批评者包括2003年伊拉克战争的策划者之一前副总统切尼。

Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites race to Baghdad to defend it against militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who continue to capture towns and threaten the country's oil infrastructure.

伊拉克数以千计的什叶派穆斯林急速增援巴格达，保卫这座城市免遭“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国”激进分子的攻陷。这个激进组织继续攻占伊拉克城镇，危及着这个国家的石油基础设施。

A potential refugee crisis is brewing amid shortages of fuel and medicine elsewhere in the country.

伊拉克其他地区由于缺少燃料和药品，可能爆发的难民危机正在形成。

President Obama says the situation could spread more broadly in the Middle East, but continues to limit the scope of potential U.S. involvement.

奥巴马总统说，这种局势可能在中东地区蔓延，但仍限制美国可能参与的程度。

“American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq, but we will help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi people, the region and American interests as well," says Obama.

他说：“美国部队不会重返伊拉克作战，但是我们将帮助伊拉克人同危及伊拉克人民，危及地区和美国利益的恐怖分子作战。”

But America is shrinking from the world stage with disastrous results, according to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

前副总统切尼说，美国在世界舞台上的作用越来越小，带来灾难性的后果。

“We have left a big vacuum in the Middle East by our withdrawal from Iraq with no stay-behind agreement, by the commitment he (Obama) made a couple weeks ago that we are going to completely withdraw from Afghanistan with no stay-behind agreement.  They (the Obama administration) are still living back in the day when they claimed, ‘We got [Osama] bin Laden, the terrorism problem is solved.'  That was not true then; it is even less true today,” said Cheney, speaking on ABC’s This Week program.

他说：“我们从伊拉克撤军没有任何后续协议，奥巴马几个星期前承诺，我们没有签署后续协议，就将从阿富汗全部撤军，这也给中东留下了巨大真空。他们仍停留在宣称‘我们抓住了本拉登，恐怖主义问题解决了’的日子里。当时就不是那么回事儿，现在更非如此。”

The Iraq War remains one of America’s least popular military engagements, and polls show little support for another armed U.S. intervention in Iraq.  Democratic Senator Harry Reid heaped scorn on Cheney.

伊拉克战争仍然是美国最不受欢迎的军事介入之一，民调显示，民众对美国再次军事介入伊拉克支持甚微。参议院民主党领袖里德对切尼冷嘲热讽。

“If there is one thing this country does not need, it is that we should be taking advice from Dick Cheney on wars,” said Reid.

他说：“如果说美国不需要某种东西，那就是不要听取切尼对战争的建议。”

But many Republican lawmakers, and some Democrats, say the United States must consider a more muscular response to terrorist-fueled militancy engulfing the Middle East. Among them is Senator John McCain.

但是很多共和党议员和一些民主党人说，美国必须考虑对吞噬中东的恐怖主义武装行动做出更加强势的反应，麦凯恩就是其中之一。

“They will pose a direct threat to the security of the United States.  I say to the critics who say do nothing and let them (Iraqis) fight it out, you cannot confine this conflict to Iraq and Syria,” said McCain.

他说：“他们直接对美国的安全构成威胁。我要对那些坐视不管，让伊拉克人一决雌雄的人说，这场冲突不仅局限于伊拉克和叙利亚。”

Iraq’s government has requested U.S. air strikes targeting Sunni militants, an option President Obama has neither ruled in or out.

伊拉克政府要求美国对逊尼派激进分子进行空袭，奥巴马对此既没有同意，也没有排除。

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said air strikes will be of little use without what he termed a more “inclusive government in Iraq.”

联合国秘书长潘基文说，‘伊拉克没有一个更包容性的政府’，空中打击的作用无济于事。