美国防部长拉姆斯菲尔德的“巧言”

大大师UID: 143282

转自西祠胡同“C。C。英语村”版，作者“预约新郎”
Across America there have been loud calls -- from some Republicans as well as from Democrats -- for Ronald Rumsfeld to resign as secretary of defense. Many Americans believe that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib Prison is ultimately Rumsfeld's fault.

　　Rumsfeld favors a daring, improvisational type of leadership. Some critics reason that the abuse stemmed from the Pentagon's inadequate planning for the occupation. With few trained personnel for important functions like running prisons, discipline broke down among the guards. Too much power over prisoners and too little guidance from senior army officers quickly corrupted some of the prison personnel, allowing them to live out sadistic fantasies. Other critics believe that it was Rumsfeld and his coterie inside the Defense Department, annoyed by the cautious, rule-bound character of army officers, who winked at deviations from established procedures. Yet others blame Rumsfeld for allowing military intelligence officers eager for usable information from prisoners to interfere in the running of military prisons, properly the domain of the military police.

　　Will Rumsfeld resign? The Bush family have a reputation for stubborn loyalty to advisors and subalterns; their attitude seems to be "You stand by us and we'll stand by you." Thus there appears to be little likelihood that the president will give Rumsfeld the boot. And as Tom Toles' cartoon illustrates, many observers regard Rumsfeld as a master of the bureaucratic non-apology, the apology that isn't really an apology since it carries no consequences.

　　The crux of the cartoon is the tortured English in frame 2: "Now does [accepting full responsibility] mean I'm responsible to make sure it didn't happen? Obviously it's a little late for that now." He should say "I was responsible"; he was responsible at the time of the abuse. Instead he says "I'm responsible" -- implying responsible now to make sure that a past event should not happen. This makes nonsense of the sentence: of course he can't go back in time to change what happened. Ergo he isn't really responsible, though he won't say that openly.

　　How can Rumsfeld be induced to abandon this sort of obfuscation? In the last frame Tom Toles plants a grim suggestion in his mind.

　　①我为伊拉克虐囚事件承担全部责任。

　　②我承担责任是不是意味着我现在有责任确保虐囚未曾发生？显然，这有点晚了。

　　③是不是发生了这事就意味着我该辞职？我不这样认为。

　　④我说“我负有责任”意味着什么？不意味什么。

　　⑤谢谢，国防部长先生。

　　⑥如果他们让我裸着身子坐在地上，他们就会得到更好的答案。

　　⑦我们已经受够刺激了。





美国防部长拉姆斯菲尔德的“巧言”
　　如今，整个美国响起了强烈的呼声———不仅来自民主党，也来自某些共和党人士———要求拉姆斯菲尔德辞去国防部长一职。很多美国人认为，发生在伊拉克阿布格拉布监狱的虐囚事件从根本上讲是拉姆斯菲尔德的责任。

　　拉姆斯菲尔德喜爱大胆的心血来潮式的领导风格。有的批评人士认为虐囚事件源于五角大楼并不恰当的占领伊拉克的计划。由于几乎没有训练有素的人员承担重要职能，如管理监狱，使得卫兵军纪涣散。对战俘拥有太多的权力，而上级军官给予的指导又太少，很快就使一些监狱管理人员堕落，使他们得以实施虐待犯人的狂想。另有批评家相信是拉姆斯菲尔德和他在国防部内的小圈子厌倦了谨慎、守纪的军官特色，对那些背离既定程序的事睁一只眼闭一只眼。还有人批评拉姆斯菲尔德允许那些急于得到情报的军队情报官员干预军事监狱的管理，而这本应该是宪兵的管理领域。

　　拉姆斯菲尔德会辞职吗？布什家族素有对幕僚和下属极力保护的名声，他们的态度似乎是：“你站在我们这一边，我们也站在你这边。”因此总统踢开拉姆斯菲尔德的可能性是很小的。正如漫画家汤姆．托尔斯的漫画所表现的，很多人都认为拉姆斯菲尔德是个善耍官僚作风、搞虚伪道歉的能手，这一虚伪道歉不是真正道歉，因为它没有给拉姆斯菲尔德带来任何惩处。

　　这幅漫画的关键点是第二栏怪异的英文，他说“承担责任是否意味着我现在有责任确保虐囚没有发生？显然，这有点晚了。”实际上他应该说“那时我有责任”，他应该在虐囚发生时负责任，但他说“我现在有责任”，此话暗示现在的责任是确保过去的事不发生，这就使得此话没有意义，他当然无法回到过去改变已经发生的事，因此，他就不用负真正的责任，尽管他没有公开说明这一点。

　　怎么才能使拉姆斯菲尔德放弃这种含混？在漫画最后一栏中，托尔斯在他心中植入了冷酷的建议———“如果让我裸着身子坐在地上……”

imongUID: 140258

Where's the cartoon?

I am interested. :D