百年神交：林纾翻译托尔斯泰

President Obama Recalls Mistakes of Iraq War
奥巴马回忆伊拉克战争错误

Jake: Mr. President, in your speech at American University yesterday,you called this the most important foreign policy debate that we’ve witnessed since the Iraq War.
总统先生，昨天在美国大学的演讲中，你称这是自伊拉克战争以来我们见证的最重要的外交政策辩论。

Obama: Right.
对。

Jake: I think if you talk to most Americans, and particularly our generation, they don’t necessarily feel that. I wonder why you think that is?
我认为，如果你跟大部分美国人谈一下，尤其是我们这一代人，他们不会这样认为。为什么你会有这样的看法？

Obama: Well, I lived through the debate of the Iraq War. I wasn’t yet in the United States Senate. I was a state senator in Illinois.
我经历了伊拉克战争的辩论。那时我还不在美国参议院。当时我只是伊利诺伊州一名参议员。

Archive clip: I don’t oppose war in all circumstances. What I do oppose is a dumb war.
我不反对任何情况下发动战争。但是我反对盲目愚蠢的战争。

Obama: At the time, there was a drumbeat that going into Iraq was the right thing to do.
那时，人们觉得进军伊拉克是正确的事情。

George H W Bush: We will answer every danger and every enemy that threatens the American people.
我们会回应威胁美国民众的任何危险和敌人。

Obama: A lot of people didn’t get engaged in that debate then either.
那时许多人没有参与辩论。

It was only after the decision was made.
只是做出决策之后才参与讨论。

It was only after the initial push into Baghdad descended into massive chaos that suddenly the country realized that we had made a big, strategic mistake.
只是最初进军巴格达引发大范围的混乱之后，整个国家才突然意识到我们犯了一个大的战略错误。

And my point is that now is the time to have the debate, not after decisions are made.
我的观点是，现在是进行辩论的正确实际，而不是做出决策之后才进行辩论。