英国卫报：美国如何创造了一个无尽战争的世界(1)（在线收听）

How the US created a world of endless war

美国如何创造了一个无尽的战争世界

In 2008, many of Barack Obama’s supporters hoped he would bring the global war on terror to a close.

2008年，巴拉克-奥巴马的许多支持者都希望他能结束全球反恐战争。

Instead, he expanded it – and his successors have done nothing to change course.

但相反，他扩大了战争--他的继任者没有采取任何措施来调整策略。

On 23 May 2013, the peace activist Medea Benjamin attended a speech by President Barack Obama at Fort McNair in Washington DC, where he defended his administration’s use of armed drones in counter-terrorism.

2013年5月23日，和平活动家梅地亚-本杰明出席了巴拉克-欧巴马总统在华盛顿特区麦克奈尔堡的演讲，他在演讲中为其政府在反恐中使用武装无人机做了辩护。

During his speech, Benjamin interrupted the president to criticise him for not having closed Guantánamo Bay and for pursuing military solutions over diplomatic ones.

在演讲中，本杰明打断了总统的讲话，批评他没有关闭关塔那摩湾，以及追求军事解决方案而不是外交解决方案。

She was swiftly ejected by military police and the Secret Service.

她被军警和特勤局迅速赶了出去。

The Washington Post later dismissed her as a “heckler”.

《华盛顿邮报》后来认为她是"找茬儿"的。

Obama himself had been more reflective at the event, engaging with her criticisms, which led to even deeper self-criticism of his own.

奥巴马本人在活动中更多地进行了反思，提到了她的批评，从而导致他对自己进行了更深刻的自我批评。

It was the moment of greatest moral clarity about war during a presidency that did more than any other to bring its endless and humane American form fully into being.

这是奥巴马在担任总统期间对战争有最清晰的道德认识的时刻，他比任何其他总统都更有能力使其无休止的、人性化的美国形式完全形成。

For all its routine violence, the American way of war is more and more defined by a near complete immunity from harm for the American side and unprecedented care when it comes to killing people on the other.

就其所有的常规暴力而言，美国的战争方式越来越多地被定义为：美方几乎完全免于伤害，而在杀害另一方的人时则会空前谨慎。

Today, there are more and more legal obligations to make war more humane – meaning, above all, the aim of minimising collateral harm.

今天，有越来越多的法律义务让战争更加人道化--这意味着，首先要将附带伤害降到最低。

Countries like the US have agreed to obey those obligations, however permissively they interpret them and inadequately apply them in the field.

像美国这样的国家已经同意遵守这些义务，无论他们如何放任地解释这些义务，并在战场上不适当地应用这些义务。

Absolutely and relatively, fewer captives are mistreated and fewer civilians die than in the past.

与过去相比，无论是绝对还是相对而言，受虐待的俘虏和死亡的平民都减少了。

Yet, at the same time, the US’s military operations have become more expansive in scope and perpetual in time by virtue of these very facts.

然而，与此同时，凭借这些事实，美国的军事行动在范围上变得更广，在时间上也更持久。

The very idea of more humane war may seem a contradiction in terms.

更为人道的战争听起来似乎很矛盾。

The US’s conflicts abroad remain brutal and deadly, but what’s frightening about them is not just the violence they inflict.

美国在海外的冲突仍然是残酷和致命的，但它们的可怕之处不仅仅是它们造成的暴力。

This new kind of American war is revealing that the most elemental face of war is not death.

这种新型的美国战争揭示了战争的最基本面不是死亡。

Instead, it is control by domination and surveillance.

相反，它是通过统治和监视来控制。