VOA标准英语2009年-US Commitment to Afghanistan Won't End

 

Top Pentagon officials say the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan will not end when the military campaign is over. They are also predicting U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan will inevitably¹ increase the violence and casualties in the country.

Meredith Buel | Washington 07 December 2009

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense² for Policy, Michele Flournoy (file photo)

Top Pentagon officials say the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan will not end when the military campaign is over.  They are also predicting U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan will inevitably increase the violence and casualties in the country. 

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy, says President Obama's decision to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in the next six months and then begin withdrawing them by July 2011 was made only after a lengthy³ district by district evaluation⁴ of the security situation in Afghanistan.

Flournoy says the withdrawal⁵ date is not arbitrary and Mr. Obama did not, as she put it, pull the timeline "out of a hat."

She says after the review the administration is convinced the situation in Afghanistan will improve sufficiently⁶ in the next 18 months for U.S. and NATO troops to begin transferring security to Afghan forces.

"The conclusion we reached based on that analysis is that July 2011 is a realistic date for us to plan to begin the process of transferring responsibility in some parts of the country," said Michele Flournoy. "We have very high confidence that by that date conditions will permit us to end the surge and begin a gradual and responsible drawdown of U.S. forces."

In addition to the 30,000 U.S. soldiers, other countries have pledged to send another 7,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Flournoy told a conference at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute she hopes all the new troops will be deployed⁷ in the next six or seven months.

Flournoy says even when the military operation is complete, the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan will remain strong.

"We have insured our Afghan partners that our engagement and our assistance will be enduring," she said. "We will not walk away from Afghanistan when the military mission ends.

The Pentagon announced Monday that about 1,500 U.S. Marines are expected to arrive in Afghanistan later this month, the initial elements of the 30,000 troop surge authorized⁸ by President Obama last week.

Brigadier General John Nicholson, a specialist in counterinsurgency who just returned from leading troops in southern Afghanistan, says the new forces will be used to protect the civilian⁹ population from the Taliban.

"When we look at counterinsurgency the first and critical step is to separate the enemy from the people," said General Nicholson. "In order to do that in some of these critical districts, we lack sufficient ANSF, Afghan National Security Force capacity.  Therefore, we need coalition¹⁰ forces as a bridge to enable the separation to occur."

Nicholson says as new troops are sent to southern and eastern Afghanistan the fighting will intensify¹¹. 

"We are going to clear districts that currently have a heavy enemy presence and it is going to increase the violence and sadly that will increase the casualties," he said.

President Obama says the decision to send the reinforcements is designed, in part, to seize the initiative from the Taliban, which has been gaining ground in recent years. 

 

1 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

2 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。

3 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。

4 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

5 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。

6 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

7 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

8 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

9 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

10 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。

11 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。