美军留在阿富汗并新部署到喀麦隆

US Troops to Remain in Afghanistan, Deploy¹ to Cameroon 美军留在阿富汗并新部署到喀麦隆

President Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he will slow the planned withdrawal² of United States forces from Afghanistan. The announcement came a day after the president said he would send troops to Cameroon to help in the fight against Boko Haram militants³. Under Mr. Obama’s leadership, the U.S. has led an international coalition⁴ against the Islamic State group for more than a year. Islamic State forces control parts of both Syria and Iraq.

Mr. Obama was elected in 2008 partly because he promised to bring American troops home and end the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many Americans had grown tired of the wars and wanted their sons and daughters who were fighting them to come home. On Thursday, the president said he knows this is still what the American people want.

“I know that many of you have grown weary of this conflict. As you all are well aware, I do not support the idea of endless war.” 

Mr. Obama has said many times during his two terms that he wants American troops removed from conflict areas by the time he leaves office. In May of 2014, he spoke⁵ to soldiers at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He told them that most of the American troops who were then in Afghanistan would be home by the time he left office in January 2017.

But Afghan troops have not been able to provide security for the country. On Thursday, President Obama said “Afghan forces are still not as strong as they need to be.” Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers and their supporters continue to threaten security. The Taliban has surprised U.S. officials with its strength and ability to control rural areas and launch deadly attacks on cities.

“The bottom line is in key areas of the country, the security situation is still very fragile, and in some places there’s risk of deterioration⁶.” 

So Mr. Obama announced this week that he has decided⁷ to keep the number of American troops in Afghanistan at 9,800 through most of 2016. He plans to reduce that number to 5,500 by the time he leaves office in early 2017. At one time, there were 100,000 American troops in the country. Two thousand, two hundred Americans have died in the fighting.

Officials say the president made his decision after months of talks with U.S. military leaders and Afghan officials. Many officials were worried when Afghan forces lost control of the northern city of Kunduz for a short time to Taliban militants.

Also this week, President Obama ordered the military to send about 300 American troops to the central African nation of Cameroon. He announced the deployment⁸ in a letter sent to the heads of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Mr. Obama wrote that about 90 U.S. troops began deploying⁹ to Cameroon on Monday. They will use unmanned aircraft to find Boko Haram militants.

A U.S. defense¹⁰ official said that Cameroon invited the troops as part of a larger international effort to stop the spread of violent extremists. The official said the need for international action has, in the official’s words, become “more urgent as Boko Haram and other organizations ramped¹² up their violent activities.” Boko Haram has been active in northern Cameroon. The area is near their main base in northeastern Nigeria. The group has killed hundreds of civilians¹³ in Cameroon and at least 10,000 in Nigeria over the past few years.

An American defense official said it is not known how long the troops would be in Cameroon. The official said they would stay “as long as (their) presence is requested.”

Words in The News

bottom line – expression conclusion; final decision

key – adj. extremely important

fragile – adj. not strong

deterioration – n. the act or process of becoming worse

core – v. describing the most important or basic part of something

adjustment – n. a change, often small, that improves something or makes it work better

ramp¹¹ up – expression to increase the size or amount of something; to increase the volume, amount, or rate of something

presence – n. the fact of being in a particular place

1 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

2 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。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

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。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 deterioration   

n.退化；恶化；变坏

参考例句：

• Mental and physical deterioration both occur naturally with age. 随着年龄的增长，心智和体力自然衰退。
• The car's bodywork was already showing signs of deterioration. 这辆车的车身已经显示出了劣化迹象。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

9 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

12 ramped   

土堤斜坡( ramp的过去式和过去分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• With the arrival of George Lucas, the pace has ramped up. 随着乔治·卢卡斯的到来，速度大大加快。
• They also sold corporate bonds as the global financial crisis ramped up. 在全球金融危机加剧之际，他们还抛售了公司债券。

13 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。