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159 美国国防部并不看重轻武器
Pentagon Barely Takes Notice of Small Arms Issue
Alex Belida
Pentagon
13 Jul 2001 16:15 UTC
Ask Pentagon officials about the 1)perils of 2)proliferation and they will almost always focus on such large-scale threats as missiles, bombers, and 3)submarines, or nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
But when it comes to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, automatic rifles, machine guns, mortars, and the like, the Pentagon appears to 4)draw a blank.
Rear Admiral Craig Quigley is the Pentagon spokesman. This is what he said when asked about the position taken by U.S. defense officials ahead of the United Nations conference that began this week in New York on the 5)illicit trade in small arms. "It's just an issue we have not been involved in on the world stage, and I am not aware of the Department of Defense having a policy position in that regard," he said.
Aides to the spokesman later told VOA the Pentagon's top expert on small arms questions was a relatively low-ranking officer who was out of the building and possibly on 6)vacation.
In fact, VOA subsequently established the officer was a listed member of the U.S. 7)delegation at the U.N. conference in New York, one of seven Pentagon representatives. But the group included only one other military officer, again relatively low-ranking. The five member civilian 8)contingent included three individuals with less than imposing defense positions: an intern, a policy fellow, and a research analyst.
Despite the apparent lack of serious interest, Pentagon officials acknowledge 9)privately that U.S. military personnel are probably in greater danger worldwide from small arms like the AK-47 10)assault rifle than they are from a 11)ballistic missile attack.
The private Small Arms Survey group estimates that 500,000 people die each year at the hands of small arms. It calls them "the real weapons of mass destruction" and says they "12)exacerbate conflicts, cause much human suffering, and undermine economic development across the globe."
The United States is considered the world's largest exporter of small arms with recent annual sales of over $1.2 billion, but U.S. officials are quick to point out all such sales take place under strict controls.
Nevertheless, the United States has come under criticism at the small arms conference for saying it will not support various ideas, including measures to restrict the legal trade and manufacture of light weapons, measures to bar 13)civilian possession of small arms, or moves to limit the trade in small arms to governments only.
(1) peril[5perIl]n.危险
(2) proliferation[prEJ9lIfE`reIFEn]n.增殖
(3) submarine[sQbmE5ri:n, 5sQbmEri:n]n.潜水艇, 潜艇adj.水下的, 海底的
(4) draw a blank v.抽空签, 一无所获
(5) illicit[I5lIsIt]adj.违法的
(6) vacation[vE5keIF(E)n; (?@) veI-]n.假期, 休假v.度假, 休假
(7) delegation[delI5^eIF(E)n]n.代表团, 授权, 委托
(8) contingent[kEn5tIndVEnt]adj.可能发生的,暂时的n.偶然的事情, 分遣队
(9) privately adv.私下地, 秘密地
(10) assault[E5sC:lt]n.攻击, 袭击v.袭击
(11) ballistic missile n.弹道飞弹
(12) exacerbate[ek5sAsEbeIt]vt.恶化, 增剧, 激怒, 使加剧, 使烦恼
(13) civilian[sI5vIlIEn]n.平民, 公务员, 文官adj.民间的, 民用的
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