纽约时报：不像俄罗斯挑起的战争，美国参与的战争“促进了自由和民主” [美国媒体]

NYT: Unlike Russian Wars, USWars ‘Promote Freedom and Democracy’

纽约时报：不像俄罗斯挑起的战争，美国参与的战争“促进了自由和民主”



The New York Times, in its recent rebuff of commentsPresident Donald Trump made about Russia, seems not to have evolved itsunderstanding of US geopolitics past an 8th grade level. Trump had been askedby Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly (2/5/17) why he wouldn’t condemn Vladimir Putin,whom O’Reilly called a “killer.”

最近《纽约时报》就特朗普总统对俄罗斯做出的评论予以反驳，认为特朗普对美国地缘政治的理解还没有达到8年级的水平。福克斯新闻的比尔·奥莱利曾问特朗普为什么不谴责弗拉基米尔•普京——奥莱利称其为“凶手”

“You got a lot of killers,” Trump told O’Reilly. “What, you think our country’sso innocent?”

“你有很多杀手，”特朗普对奥莱利说，“什么，你认为我们的国家是如此无辜的吗？”

Naturally, this prompted a torrent of pearl-clutching from liberal patriotsaghast that the president could equate the moral worth of the United Stateswith that of the dastardly Russians. Most prominent among these was the NewYork Times, whose editorial board published a flag-waving scolding called “BlamingAmerica First” (2/7/17):

自然，这言论推动了一股从自由主义爱国者手中夺去珍珠的洪流，令人惊骇的是，总统可以把美国的道德价值等同于卑鄙的俄罗斯人。其中最引人注目的是《纽约时报》，该报的编辑部发表了一篇狂热的爱国主义指责，名为“谴责美国第一” 

Asserting the moral and political superiority of the United States over Russiahas not traditionally been a difficult maneuver for American presidents. Butrather than endorsing American exceptionalism, Mr. Trump seemed to appreciateMr. Putin’s brutality—which includes bombing civilians in Syria and, hisaccusers allege, responsibility for a trail of dead political opponents andjournalists at home—and suggested America acts the same way.
Oh my, the horror.

对于美国总统而言，坚持美国比俄罗斯在道德上和政治上具有的优越性这一传统策略并不是困难的事。然而，特朗普并没有赞成美国的的例外主义，他似乎很欣赏普京的残暴行为——包括轰炸叙利亚的平民，以及他的指控者声称，他对一连串死于家中的政治对手和记者负有责任——并且（特朗普）建议美国采取同样的行动。（？？？翻译水平不够，不太懂是什么意思）

A rough look at the actions in question since Putin has been in office revealsthis outrage to be, at best, misplaced. One tally by Airwars, a Westernnonprofit, puts the total number of Syrian civilians killed by Russia since itentered the war in September 2015 at just over 4,000, or 0.8–0.4 percent of the500,000 to 1 million civilians who died due to George W. Bush’s unilateralinvasion of Iraq in 2003. Add to this the thousands of other civilians killedin other theaters of the “War on Terror” under the Bush and Obamaadministrations, including Afghanistan, Libya and Syria itself, and the idea ofpointing to respect for civilian lives as something that elevates the UnitedStates above Russia seems a little absurd.

粗略审视从普京执政以来的一些行为，表明出这种愤怒至多是不合时宜的。西方非营利机构Airwars的一个结果是，自从2015年9月进入战争以来，俄罗斯杀死的叙利亚平民总数仅为4,000多人，占美国前总统乔治·布什在2003年单方面入侵伊拉克时共死去50万至100万平民的0.8-0.4％。叙利亚本身再加上包括阿富汗、利比亚的其他成千上万的平民死于由小布什和奥巴马政府时期发动的“反恐战争”那样类似的把戏，使得通过表达尊重平民生命的主张来显示美国比俄罗斯更具有道德上和政治上的优越性这种策略似乎显得有些荒谬。（译者：坦然放弃厚脸皮了，直接不要脸了，真特么6）

But the addition of stifling dissent and allegedly killing journalists takesRussia over the line into Bad Guy territory, the Times suggests—ignoring theUS’s own harsh punishment for whistleblowers, infiltration of dissident groupsand bombing of foreign journalists. Not to mention the US’s sprawling,unprecedented incarceration system, or its unmatched institutional racism–allhuman right abuses leveled at home.

但是，随着压制异议的增加和传闻中杀死记者的行为使得俄罗斯已经逾越了底线变成了一个邪恶的国家，纽约时报暗示着——俄罗斯无视美国对间谍的严厉惩罚，对异见团体进行渗透并轰炸外国记者。（在特朗普政府的领导下）更不必提及美国庞大，前所未有的监控体系，或者其极端的体制性种族主义——所有侵犯人权的行为正在国内发生。（体制性种族主义：历史上的歧视造成的严重后果已化为根深蒂固的“体制性种族主义”（institutional racism），这种镶嵌在文化和制度中的种族歧视是如此严重，以至于任何单纯的反歧视都将会使过去的不正义永久性的固化）

The Times goes on to insist that “no American president has done what Mr. Putinhas done,” including “invading Ukraine” and “interfering in the Americanelection.” Of course, American presidents have invaded other countries andintervened in other elections, but for reasons unclear, the Times suggests thatthose two cases are the ones that indicate the US’s moral superiority overRussia.

《纽约时报》继续坚称，“没有美国总统做过普京所做的事情”，包括“入侵乌克兰”和“干涉美国大选”。当然，我们并不清楚出于何种原因，过去美国总统已经入侵过其他国家并干预他们的选举，而《纽约时报》却指出，俄罗斯所造成的这两起事件表明美国在道德上优于俄罗斯。

The New York Times briefly mentions the Iraq War and torture, but whistles pastthese episodes by insisting they were “terrible mistakes.” The Times seems tobe under the impression that Russia kills innocents for laughs, while theUnited States does so only with the best of intentions:

《纽约时报》简短地提到了伊拉克战争和酷刑，吹嘘这些事情坚称这只是“可怕的错误”，他们想给大家留下这样的印象，俄罗斯以屠杀无辜百姓为乐，而美国则是执行正义时无可避免的牺牲：

At least in recent decades, American presidents who took military action havebeen driven by the desire to promote freedom and democracy, sometimes withextraordinary results, as when Germany and Japan evolved after World War II fromvanquished enemies into trusted, prosperous allies.

至少在近几十年里，美国总统采取军事行动的动力来自于促进自由和民主的愿望，有时会带来非凡的结果，就像二战后德国和日本从被征服的敌人转变为值得信赖的、繁荣的盟友。

That US invasions “have been driven by the desire to promote freedom anddemocracy” is not argued, let alone proved; it’s presented as an article offaith. As the Times’ “recent decades” go back to World War II, the UnitedStates presumably killed an estimated 3.8 million in Vietnam “to promotefreedom and democracy”—despite President Dwight Eisenhower admitting that giventhe chance, 80 percent of the Vietnamese people would have voted for Ho ChiMinh, the leader whose government the US opposed. Implicitly, the US’s use ofcovert terror to try to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua, and USmilitary support for death squad regimes elsewhere in Central America, werelikewise motivated by a longing for freedom and democracy.

在这篇文章里，美国的入侵“是由促进自由和民主的愿望所驱动的”并不存在讨论，更不用说证明了; 它就是作为一篇信仰文章呈现的。正如时代报所言，为了促进自由民主“在第二次世界大战期间，美国在越南杀了约380万人”，尽管艾森豪威尔总统承认由于这种原因，80%的越南人将投票支持美国所反对的领导人胡志明。暗示着，美国利用隐蔽的恐怖手段试图推翻尼加拉瓜当选的政府，以及美国对中美洲其他地方的杀手集团的军事支持，同样也是出于对自由和民主的渴望。（dead squad拉美某些国家从事谋杀左派或罪犯等的杀手小队）

As FAIR (9/30/16) has noted, the most important function of major editorialboards is to be gatekeepers of national security orthodoxy. And there is nomore axiomatic orthodoxy than American exceptionalism. One can handwring over“mistakes,” even occasionally do harsh reporting on American war crimes—so longas one arrives back at the position of American moral superiority. “Yes, Americahas made mistakes,” the good liberal insists, “but at least we don’t do thisother bad thing that is, unaccountably, uniquely disqualifying.”

正如FAIR（9/30/16）所指出的那样，主编部门最重要的职能是成为国家安全正统的守门人。并且没有什么比美国的例外主义更具公理性的正统观点了。只要能够让美国置于道德的高地“错误”可以被书写，甚至偶尔对美国的战争罪行都可以进行严厉的报道。“是的，美国人犯了错误，”自由主义者强调，“但至少我们唯独不会做那种无法解释的有违道德的坏事。”

Clearly, Trump’s motives in questioning American innocence were anything butliberal or noble. He was evoking America’s own sins not to challenge them, butto apologize for those of the Russian president and, preemptively, his own. Butthe outrage over Trump’s comments from pundits and editorial boards did notseek to spotlight his cynicism and its dark implications, but rather to insistthat the United States is, in fact, on a higher moral plane than Russia. Thisis a childish assertion that serves to flatter the ego of American readerswhile legitimizing their government’s crimes.

显然，特朗普质疑美国例外性的动机不是出于自由主义或高尚的道德。他指出美国自己的罪行不是为了挑战美国道德优越性的传统，而是为了向俄罗斯总统道歉，并主动为自己的行为致歉。但是权威组织和时代周刊编辑对特朗普言论的愤怒并不是为了把特朗普的犬儒主义和黑暗的想法曝光出来，而是为了坚持美国与俄罗斯相比所具有的现实层面的道德优越性。而这是一种幼稚的言论，它为自大的美国读者所服务，同时让美国的罪行合法化。