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Iraq’s unravelling
伊拉克的解體
The mistakes that made Islamic State
造就IS的禍根
Blood Year: Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror.
血染的一年：IS和反恐戰爭的失敗
WHEN David Kilcullen, a young Australian army officer who had been seconded to America’s State Department as a counter-terrorism strategist, arrived in Baghdad’s Green Zone in late 2005 he found himself at “Ground Zero for the greatest strategic screw up since Hitler’s invasion of Russia”. Just as it is said that the first world war was the calamity from which sprang all the other calamities of the 20th century, so too was the bungled aftermath of the invasion of Iraq the screw-up from which all other screw-ups followed.
重點詞匯：
1 unravel 解體；崩潰；瓦解
2 second 臨時調派；短期調任 （發音不同）
3 State Department （美國）國務院
4 strategist 戰略家；善于籌劃部署的人
5 baghdad 巴格達
6 Green Zone 綠色（在美軍控制下的安全）區域
7 Ground Zero 開始; 起點; 爆心投影點;
8 screw up 搞糟；攪亂；弄壞
9 invasion 入侵，侵略; 侵害
10 calamity 災難；災禍
11 spring 突然活躍起來;突然出現
12 bungle 笨拙地做；失敗
13 aftermath（戰爭、事故、不快事情的）后果，創傷
聽力原文:
In his new book, Mr Kilcullen gives an unflinching insider’s account of how mistakes and missed opportunities led inexorably to the events of 2014. This is the “blood year” of his title, when Islamic State (IS) began its blitzkrieg through Iraq that culminated in the seizure of Mosul, the country’s second-biggest city, and the approach almost to Baghdad. Eighteen months after Barack Obama assembled his international coalition to “degrade and defeat” IS, the self-styled “caliphate” still holds Mosul and a string of other Iraqi cities, while controlling much of eastern Syria including Raqqa, its “capital” since 2013.
重點詞匯：
1 unflinching 不屈不撓的；果敢的；堅定的；不畏縮的
2 account 描述；敘述；報告
3 inexorable 不可阻擋的；無法改變的
4 blitzkrieg 閃電戰；閃擊戰
5 culminate （以某種結果）告終；（在某一點）結束
6 seizure 奪取；占領；控制
7 mosul 摩蘇爾（伊拉克北部城市）
8 self-styled 自封的；自詡的
9 caliphate 哈里發的地位,哈里發的轄地
10 degrade（使）退化，降解；分解
聽力原文:
There is plenty of blame to go round. Mr Kilcullen’s contempt for George W. Bush’s defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is searing. If invading Iraq was an irresponsible distraction from the real fight against al-Qaeda, Mr Rumsfeld’s insistence on a “light footprint” strategy meant that the number of troops available to contain the entirely predictable (and predicted) chaos following the removal of Saddam Hussein was “criminally” inadequate.
重點詞匯：
1 contempt 蔑視；輕蔑；鄙視
2 sear 燒灼；灼傷；烤焦；輕煎
3 distraction 分散注意力的事；使人分心的事
4 al-Qaeda 基地組織;
5 insistence 堅決要求；堅持；固執
6 chaos 混亂；雜亂；紊亂
7 criminally 刑法上；刑事上；在犯罪方面
8 defence secretary 國防大臣/部長
9 inadequate 不充分的；不足的；不夠的
聽力原文:
This was compounded by disbanding the Iraqi army and then dismantling the ruling Baath party, thus rendering most of the country’s qualified middle class unemployable. The conditions for the debacle to come were now complete. It was in the ensuing years of sectarian bloodletting that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the predecessor to IS, emerged under the psychotic leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the most potent force in the insurgency.
重點詞匯：
1 compound 使加重；使惡化
2 disband 解散；解體；散伙
3 dismantle （逐漸）廢除，取消
4 baath party 阿拉伯復興社會黨
5 render 使成為；使變得；使處于某狀態
6 debacle 大敗；崩潰；垮臺；災禍
7 sectarian（宗教）教派的，派性的
8 ensue 接著發生；因而產生
9 bloodletting 殺戮；傷害; 放血療法
10 predecessor 前任
11 psychotic 精神病患者
12 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 阿布·穆薩布·扎卡維;
13 potent 有效的，強有力的; 有權勢的; 烈性的; 有說服力的;
14 insurgency 起義；叛亂；造反
聽力原文:
Yet Mr Kilcullen is full of praise for Mr Bush’s commitment to the troop “surge” in 2007 led by General David Petraeus. Mr Bush may have made a lousy call over Iraq in the first place, but he understood the moral and reputational imperative to repair some of the damage and was sufficiently flexible to apply new methods when old ones had failed.
重點詞匯：
1 surge 急劇上升；飛漲；激增
2 lousy 非常糟的；極壞的；惡劣的
3 imperative 重要緊急的；迫切的；急需處理的
聽力原文:
The same could not be said for his successor, Mr Obama. As Mr Kilcullen sees it, by the time the new president took office in 2009 Iraq was in a much better place. AQI had been more or less eradicated, the violence had largely abated and, under American guidance, the government of Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad showed some willingness to share power with Sunnis and Kurds. But Mr Obama, instead of maintaining enough boots on the ground to keep things going in the right direction, headed for the exit at the first opportunity when, in late 2010, he and Mr al-Maliki failed to agree to a deal extending the legal status of American forces in Iraq
重點詞匯
1 eradicate 根除；消滅；杜絕
2 abate（使）減弱，減退，減輕，減少
3 Nouri al-Maliki 努里·馬利基
4 Sunnis and Kurds 遜尼派和庫爾德人
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