VOA慢速英语2021 美国纪念911事件20周年（在线收听）

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, took place in just under 102 minutes. On that day, 2,996 people died in the worst terrorist attack in modern history.

2001年9月11日的悲剧事件发生在不到102分钟的时间里。那天，有2996人在这场现代历史上最严重的恐怖袭击中丧生。

What followed was nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of Defense says there were at least 2,325 American military deaths. No one knows exactly how many civilians were killed.

接下来就是近20年的阿富汗战争。美国国防部表示，至少有2325名美国军人牺牲。没有人确切知道有多少平民被杀。

The Global War on Terror, as it was called, stretched beyond Afghanistan into Iraq and places as far away as Africa. In Iraq, the conflict killed nearly 4,500 U.S. service members and many thousands of civilians.

正如其名，全球反恐战争从阿富汗延伸到伊拉克以及远到非洲的地方。在伊拉克的这场冲突造成近4500名美国军人牺牲和数千名平民丧生。

On September 11, 2021, President Joe Biden is expected to try to mark the end of that period and America's longest war.

预计美国总统乔·拜登将在2021年9月11日尝试给这一时代和美国最长战争画上句号。

Since withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan at the end of August, the Biden administration has sought to put the events of 20 years behind it. It has released many formerly-secret documents about the September 11 attacks. It appears to have accepted the return of Taliban militants, the Afghan leaders pushed out by the U.S. invasion nearly 20 years ago.

自8月底从阿富汗撤出所有军队以来，拜登政府一直试图将这场20年的事件抛诸脑后。它已经发布了许多关于911袭击的解密文件。它似乎已经接受了近20年前被美国入侵赶跑的塔利班武装分子及阿富汗领导人的回归。

Three places

三处地点

On Saturday, Biden will visit the three places that were attacked.

周六，拜登将会访问三处遭受袭击的地方。

New York City is where American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower.

纽约市是美国航空11号航班撞击世贸中心北塔的事发地。7分钟之后，美联航175号航班撞击了南塔。

Biden will also visit the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. defense department, outside Washington, D.C. That is where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed 34 minutes later.

拜登还将访问位于华盛顿特区以外的美国国防部总部五角大楼。这是美国航空77号航班的坠毁地。

Separately, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will pay their respects at a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That is where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

另外，拜登和副总统卡马拉·哈里斯将在宾夕法尼亚州尚克斯维尔县的一块田地里凭吊。这是美联航93号航班的坠毁地。

Jeremi Suri is a history professor at the University of Texas in Austin.

杰里米·苏里是德克萨斯州大学奥斯汀分校的历史学教授。

"The president is drawing a line under the last 20 years," he told VOA. "And he's acting as a historian and saying we've ended an era, just like the end of the World War II era, and it's now time to make new decisions in the ways in which Harry Truman made new decisions after the World War II era."

他对美国之音表示：“总统正在跟过去20年划清界限。他扮作历史学家，称我们已经结束了一个时代，就像二战时代的结束一样，现在是时候效仿二战时代之后的哈里·杜鲁门总统做出新的决定了。”

Harry Truman was the president of the United States from 1945 to 1953.

杜鲁门于1945年到1953年期间担任美国总统。

Suri said historians understand why Biden is asking Americans to look forward and not back.

苏里表示，历史学家理解为何拜登要求美国人向前看而不是朝后看。

"I think we are in a different moment after the 2020 election, and we are in a different moment with the rise of China," he said.

他说：“我认为我们处于2020年大选之后的不同时刻，我们处于中国崛起下的不同时刻。”

A different challenge

不一样的挑战

"Twenty years on, our challenge is different," said deputy national security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.

美国国家安全副顾问伊丽莎白·舍伍德-兰德尔表示：“二十年过去了，我们面临的挑战不一样了。”

"We have learned since 9/11 how to protect Americans from terrorism," she said, adding that those measures probably prevented another 9/11-style terrorist attack.

她说：“自911事件以来，我们已经学会了如何保护美国人不受恐怖主义侵害。”她还表示，这些措施可能阻止了另一场911式的恐怖袭击。

Vanderbilt University historian Thomas Schwartz, however, does not believe we can easily call an end to the era.

然而，范德比尔特大学历史学家托马斯·施瓦茨并不认为我们可以轻易地结束这个时代。

Pointing out that it takes two sides to have a conflict, one side cannot decide alone to end it, he said.

他指出发生冲突的是双方，一方无法单独决定结束冲突。

"I think the words of President Biden — and the deeds — of a fixed time for withdrawal from Afghanistan were a mistake and were an error in judgment that I think could affect the United States over the coming years," he said.

他说：“我认为拜登总统关于在特定时间从阿富汗撤军的言论以及行动是未来几年可能会影响美国的错误和误判。”

Lebanon in 1983

1983年的黎巴嫩

Norman Ornstein is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy research group in Washington.

诺曼·奥恩斯坦是华盛顿保守派公共政策研究机构美国企业研究所的高级研究员。

He believes that Americans should look to history to understand our position. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan decided to withdraw American forces from Lebanon months after a bombing killed 241 U.S. service members. That decision, Ornstein said, shows the difference between the America of today and the America of past decades.

他认为美国人应该通过历史来了解我们的立场。1983年，一场爆炸造成241名美国军人死亡，数月之后，罗纳德·里根总统决定从黎巴嫩撤军。奥恩斯坦表示，这一决定显示了当今美国和过去几十年的美国之间的差异。

"We did not have calls for Ronald Reagan to resign, or moves to impeach him," he said. Republican lawmakers have strongly criticized the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and President Biden.

他说：“我们没有要求里根总统辞职，也没有要弹劾他。”共和党议员强烈批评美国从阿富汗撤军，并且强烈批评拜登总统。

Ornstein said Reagan's actions in 1983 were not considered for political reasons as almost everything is today.

奥恩斯坦表示，里根在1983年的行动没有考虑政治因素，如今政治因素就是一切。

"And that is a disturbing element here that actually is at least as unsettling in terms of where the country goes in the future as some of these other threats that we face," he said.

他说：“这是一个令人不安的因素，就国家未来走向而言，实际上它至少跟我们面临的其它威胁一样令人不安。”