VOA常速英语2007年-US Military Says It's Short on Trainers in Afgh

By Al Pessin
Pentagon
09 November 2007

The U.S. Army officer responsible for training Afghanistan's new security forces says he only has about half the number of U.S. military trainers he asked for.  But he says the resulting delay will be measured in months, not years, and the Afghan forces should take on significantly more responsibility in 2008.  VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.

Brigadier General Robert Livingston says the U.S. military was not able to provide the additional 3,400 trainers due to other commitments, making it necessary for the trainers he does have to handle more Afghan troops and police districts.  Still, he says, they can only cover about 80 percent of the need.  The general spoke¹ via satellite from a base near Kabul to reporters at the Pentagon.

"The ideal situation would have been to have about 7,000 U.S. military trainers, plus all the partners, which would give us a very heavy saturation² of mentoring³ with the Afghans, actually give us a pretty much one-on-one with key leaders," he said.

Instead, General Livingston says, he has about half that many U.S. military trainers, plus several hundred American policemen who have volunteered to go to Afghanistan to help.  The general says he expects to get about 800 more trainers from the U.S. army next spring, and another 800 in the fall.  And he notes that NATO, which has the primary responsibility for security in Afghanistan, has begun to provide additional training teams of its own.

"I can't really say, time-wise, how much it's going to set us back, if it's going to set us back," he added.  "It certainly has made it more challenging, but I can't really say it's going to set us back more than a year, probably much less than a year."

General Livingston says one reason is that while more trainers would have moved the process more quickly, by next year the need for trainers will be reduced as Afghan units, particularly the army, finish their training and conduct more independent operations.

"I think what we'll find is over the next year, as we work on focused district development, we continue certifying⁴ army units and they will actually start being able to stand on their own this spring, we'll start seeing a lesser⁵ need, plus NATO is starting to contribute more troops to the army training effort," he explained.

The general says that enables more American trainers to focus on the Afghan National Police, and he says the Afghan Ministry⁶ of the Interior is also doing more to try to help, using the Afghan Defense⁷ Ministry's experience in training and support.  General Livingston says that experience means the training shortfall is "not going to have the same catastrophic effect that it would have."

1 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。

2 saturation   

n.饱和(状态)；浸透

参考例句：

• The company's sales are now close to saturation in many western countries.这家公司的产品销售量在许多西方国家已接近饱和。
• Road traffic has reached saturation point.公路交通已达到饱和点。

3 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

4 certifying   

（尤指书面）证明( certify的现在分词 )； 发证书给…； 证明（某人）患有精神病； 颁发（或授予）专业合格证书

参考例句：

• Signed Commercial in quintuplicate, certifying merchandise to be of Chinese origin. 签署商业发票一式五份，证明产品的原产地为中国。
• Other documents certifying the truthfulness of the contents of the advertisements. （三）确认广告内容真实性的其他证明文件。

5 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

6 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

7 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。