Remember that great "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, when President Bush dramatically landed there to give his speech announcing the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq? The White House said the banner was not its doing and must have been the Navy's idea. 「任務完了」空母エイブラハムリンカーンの大きな横断幕を憶えているだろうか? ブッシュ大統領が大規模戦闘の終了を宣言した日だ。 ホワイトハウスは、あの横断幕は自分たちが掲げたのではない、海軍が掲げたのだと言った。
Now we find out, in Bob Woodward 's new book "State of Denial," that wasn't the case. None other than Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , on the record, tells Woodward that "I took 'Mission Accomplished' out" upon reading a draft of the speech. "And I fixed it and sent it back. They fixed the speech," he said, "but not the sign." ウッドワードの新刊によれば、そうではなかったということだ。 他ならぬラムズフェルドが、ウッドワードに対し、「私が『任務完了』を演説の草稿に勧めた」 と言った。「私が直した。彼等はスピーチを直したが、あの文句は違った」
President Bush likes to say he will stay the course in Iraq. The question is: What course? Is it the course that has so far cost some 2,700 American lives, 100 Iraqi lives a day, and an estimated expenditure of $300 billion so far? ブッシュ大統領がこの進路を維持すると言うとき、その進路とは何だ? 2,700人のアメリカ人の命を奪い、100人のイラク人の命を奪い これまで3千億ドルの費用を費やした進路か?
The president has said that Iraq is the central battleground in the war against terrorism. But the intelligence agencies suggest that if this is so, it is only because the war has made it so. 大統領は、イラクは対テロ戦争の主戦場だと言った。 しかし諜報機関は、もしそうなら、それは戦争がそうしたのだと断じた。
The political storm in Washington sparked by US journalist Bob Woodward's new book - which suggests President Bush is concealing the level of violence in Iraq - has not been reflected in Baghdad. The reason is simple. Most people, even American officials, know how bad things are.
It may be true that Iraq is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders, and that the US presence there is a "cause celebre" for jihadists, as a recently declassified US intelligence assessment holds. But that doesn't mean the Iraqi insurgency is a wholly owned Al Qaeda subsidiary. Foreign fighters make up a relatively small slice of the forces targeting the US military in Iraq. Most insurgents are native Iraqi Sunni Islamists or former members of the old Baath party regime. イラクが新たな世代のテロ指導者を生み出し、アメリカの存在が聖戦士にとって悪の 象徴かも知れない。しかしそれは、イラクの武装勢力が、全てアルカイダの支配下にあることを意味しない。 アメリカを標的にしている外国勢力は、ごく一部だ。 ほとんどの武装勢力は、元々のバース体制のスンニ派勢力だ。
But if the United States wants to achieve its strategic objectives in the Middle East -- after three and half years of inconclusive warfare -- it is time to transcend the prevailing myths and consider the ramifications of an American departure from Iraq. しかしもしアメリカが中東での戦略目標を達成したいなら、神話を克服し、 イラク撤退の結果を真剣に考えるべきだ。