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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
By Deborah Tate
Washington
31 January 2007
Two former U.S. secretaries of state say the United States should step up diplomacy1 in the Middle East as a way to bring stability to Iraq. But in testimony2 before Congress, they disagreed on whether President Bush should move ahead with his decision to send more troops to Iraq. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright urged the administration to engage Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria.
Henry Kissenger
Kissinger, who was secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford3 administrations, proposed talking to Iran and Syria as part of a regional conference on Iraq.
"There should be some such conference. In my view, that should include the neighbors, the Security Council, countries like Indonesia, India, and Pakistan," he said. "That would be a rather large and unwieldy body that could then form subgroups to include regional issues. The importance is that only in such a framework can you really deal with the issue of autonomy, because you create a wider legitimacy4 for what is emerging, and against intervention5."
Kissinger said radical6 fundamentalism promoted by Iran is the biggest threat to the region. Although he said he believes Iran may have little incentive7 to help the United States solve the Iraq problem, he argued that Washington should seek to engage Tehran, nonetheless.
"We have no quarrel with Iran as a nation. We can respect Iran as a major player in the region with a significant role in the region. What we cannot accept is an Iran that seeks to dominate the region on a basis of a religious ideology8 and using the Shi'ia base in other countries to undermine stability in the region on which the economic well being of such a large part of the world depends," he said.
The Bush administration has placed conditions on any talks with Iran and Syria. U.S. officials say Iran must halt its nuclear program, which the United States and its allies believe is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, before bilateral9 talks are possible with Tehran. They also say Syria must stop sending foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq before Washington opens talks with Damascus.
Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who served under the Clinton administration, takes issue with those arguments.
"We can talk to governments without endorsing10 them or overlooking past actions. Talking to governments about hard problems is why diplomacy matters," she said.
Although Albright and Kissinger agreed on the need for more diplomacy, they disagreed about President Bush's decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, the majority of whom will be sent to Baghdad to help Iraqi forces clear and secure neighborhoods.
Albright said U.S. troops should not be sent on such a mission.
"We do not speak the language, we do not know the culture well enough, and quite frankly11, we do not have the recognized legal and moral authority to go into Iraqi homes and compel obedience12. Each time we do, we lose as much ground politically as might hope to gain militarily," she said.
But Kissinger said the troop surge could help bring stability to the country and allow a unity13 government to be established.
The Senate next week is to consider several non-binding resolutions relating to the proposed troop increase. Among them is one sponsored by the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Senator John Warner of Virginia, which expresses opposition14 to sending additional troops to Iraq.
1 diplomacy | |
n.外交;外交手腕,交际手腕 | |
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2 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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3 Ford | |
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过 | |
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4 legitimacy | |
n.合法,正当 | |
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5 intervention | |
n.介入,干涉,干预 | |
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6 radical | |
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的 | |
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7 incentive | |
n.刺激;动力;鼓励;诱因;动机 | |
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8 ideology | |
n.意识形态,(政治或社会的)思想意识 | |
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9 bilateral | |
adj.双方的,两边的,两侧的 | |
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10 endorsing | |
v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 );在(尤指支票的)背面签字;在(文件的)背面写评论;在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品 | |
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11 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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12 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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13 unity | |
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
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14 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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