VOA标准英语2009年-British PM Defends Military Mission in Afg

By Tom Rivers
London
10 November 2009

 
Britain's PM Gordon Brown during his monthly news conference at 10 Downing Street in London, 10 Nov 2009
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the costly¹, lengthy² fight in Afghanistan must go on, but he says he hopes security responsibilities can start to be handed over to local Afghans beginning next year.

Facing increasing public criticism of Britain's involvement in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a barrage³ of questions at his monthly new conference regarding the British mission.

Mr. Brown says after eight years of deployment⁴, many in Britain want to know what their forces are still doing there and when will they be coming home.

At Tuesday's news conference, Prime Minister Brown expressed once again his rationale for being engaged in the country.

"The reasons that we went to Afghanistan in 2001 are still the reasons we are there, that we are trying to protect the streets of Britain from al-Qaida and from the supportive work that could be done on their behalf by the Taliban both in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said.

But in a recent BBC poll, two-fifths of those questioned said they did not even know why British forces are in Afghanistan. And nearly two-thirds of them said they wanted the forces brought home as soon as possible.

Mr. Brown was asked about those sentiments being expressed up and down the country. He said his hope was that as more Afghan security forces and police are trained by NATO personnel, the British deployment can be reevaluated.

"I want to say to you today that we want to transfer district by district to Afghan political and military control starting next year, districts that we believe the Afghans can run themselves," he said. "We want to reintegrate those people who are today perhaps part of the insurgency⁵ but prepared to abandon violence and prepared to join the political process and we want to ensure that the Afghan government is free of corruption⁶ and therefore able to be a strong authority against any Taliban insurgency in the country."

But contained in the strategy are many unknowns and as Mr. Brown said, he is also dependent on the decisions of others.

 
23 Oct 2009 file photo of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan (R), arriving to NATO defense⁷ ministers' meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia
"I accept that we await the [U.S. General Stanley] McChrystal report's acceptance; we await the NATO decision on that as well as the American decision," he said. "I have actually led the way I saying that we are prepared to make the additional troops available for the Afghanistan strategy so we are able to show people that we have a strategy for the time ahead as well," Brown added.

There are about 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan and Mr. Brown has made 500 more available. But public-opinion polls indicate support for the war is sliding.

Mr. Brown faces a general election by June. His Labor⁸ government is lagging far behind the opposition⁹ Conservatives and the war may very well be someone else's responsibility in just over half a year. 

 

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

3 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

4 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。

5 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

6 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

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。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。