Jan. 30th
北美范文 看了两篇
完成ISSUE 207 ARGUE141
Economist 阅读
notes: 红色为不认识的单词，绿色为语言表达借鉴 Barack Obama and terrorism Another war president, after all Jan 7th 2010 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition After the Christmas “screw-up”, new priorities in the White House
“YOU may not be interested in war”, Leon Trotsky is alleged to have said, “but war is interested in you.” On Christmas Eve Barack Obama embarked on 开始，着手做a delayed holiday in Hawaii, having lingered to watch the Senate pass its health bill. But thanks to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s bungled（Vi.糟糕，完不成，笨手笨脚地做 n.拙劣的工作） Christmas-Day bomb plot, the president returned to Washington this week with more urgent priorities 紧急的，优先的事: to fix a broken intelligence system that he says is endangering American lives, and to rebut Republican allegations that he does not “get” the war on terrorism. On January 5th a visibly angry 一个显然的 Mr Obama emerged from a meeting with his security team to say that it was not a failure of intelligence-gathering that allowed Mr Abdulmutallab to board a Detroit-bound flight with a bomb in his underpants: America had possessed “sufficient information” to uncover揭露，发现 the plot but “failed to connect those dots”. This was “not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it,” he said. In the meeting itself he was reportedly crosser, denouncing 公开指责 “a screw-up that could have been disastrous”. Mr Obama has already ordered a raft of new measures, and more are promised. The “no-fly” list (on which Mr Abdulmutallab did not appear) has been expanded. Passengers from 14 countries will face extra screening. There will be more explosive-detecting teams at airports and more sky marshals 空中警官on airliners. And Mr Obama has suspended plans to send any more detainees from the Guantánamo prison back to Yemen, where al-Qaeda 基地组织 appears to have primed Mr Abdulmutallab, for fear that 唯恐，害怕some might join or rejoin al-Qaeda there. Such measures seem unlikely to silence those who have seized on the Christmas plot as evidence 抓住……为证据that Mr Obama does not take terrorism seriously enough. Dick Cheney accused Mr Obama of refusing to admit that America is at war because war “doesn’t fit” with his main goal, which the former vice-president 副总统 takes to be the “social transformation” of America. Mr Obama’s officials retorted 反驳that “seven years of bellicose rhetoric” from a Republican White House had failed to reduce the threat from al-Qaeda (but hedged their bets by pointing out that Mr Obama has in fact often said that America is “at war” with violent extremists). It is no surprise that the Republicans want to portray Mr Obama as soft on terrorism.（Portray……as……） Our poll 民意调查suggests that they have a ready audience: his changes of tone and policy on terrorism have not made Americans feel safe (see chart). And although he has sharpened the administration’s voice since the hapless post-Christmas reaction of his homeland-security secretary, Janet (“the system worked”) Napolitano, some of his policies remain highly controversial. Despite suspending the release of detainees to Yemen, for example, he still intends to close Guantánamo as soon as he can. Most Republicans were already furious at 狂怒 Mr Obama’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11th atrocities, in a federal court. Now that Mr Abdulmutallab is being treated as a criminal with the right to silence, instead of facing harsh interrogation as an enemy combatant, they have fresh ammunition. John Brennan, the president’s chief adviser on terrorism, was pilloried for suggesting that a would-be suicide-bomber might give up his secrets in return for a plea bargain. Meanwhile, a Jordanian double agent on December 30th blew up both himself and his CIA handlers in a base in Khost, in Afghanistan. Among the eight victims were members of the group directing America’s drone attacks against al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan—attacks that have become far more frequent and lethal on Mr Obama’s watch. This was a grim reminder not only that al-Qaeda is as resourceful as it is ruthless, but also that Mr Obama, the man who would reform health care, is also a war president, and one who has not yet proved to Americans that he can be a success at it. | 
GO
发表于 2010-1-30 21:48:00
回应
1.自我介绍2.你对这个项目感兴趣吗？具体是对哪里感兴趣？3.对于跨文化交流你怎么看，你觉得最大的挑战是什...
转发
