2014年经济学人 关塔那摩监狱政治

Lexington

The politics of Guantanamo

The idea of providing a home to terror suspects sparks a revealing fuss in Kansas

IF AN “irresponsible” Barack Obama moves terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to a military prison in Kansas, he would be painting a target on every hospital and school in the area. That is the view of the state's senior senator, Pat Roberts. “Not on my watch,” Mr Roberts assured supporters huddled¹ in a rain-lashed shopping mall in Wichita on October 13th, to much applause and nodding of heads. Mr Roberts, a 78-year-old Republican, promises to halt all Senate business, if need be, to stop the president from emptying the prison camp in Cuba and sending its remaining detainees to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, home to America's only maximum-security military prison.

Pedants² might object that Leavenworth has not actually been asked to take any detainees—though the Kansas prison was one of several sites considered in 2009, after Mr Obama took office declaring that he would close Guantanamo in a matter of months. No matter. A recent press report—denied, a bit half-heartedly, by the White House—suggested that officials are pondering how the president might use executive powers to close Guantanamo before his term ends, if Congress maintains its current ban on moving detainees to the mainland. Americans have been put in a jumpy mood by grim global headlines, lending a “safety-first” edge to mid-term congressional elections on November 4th.

More to the point, Mr Roberts is facing a tough re-election fight, though Kansas is a solidly conservative prairie state. After 34 years in Congress he finds himself in a tight spot, squeezed between local Tea Party purists (who think he has forgotten his Kansas roots) and old-school moderate Republicans (tempted by an independent candidate, Greg Orman, who says both parties have forgotten how to compromise).

All in all, Mr Roberts has every incentive³ to talk up fights with the White House. Asked to guess at the president's motives⁴, he frowns. Mr Obama thinks that closing Guantanamo “will make things better in the Muslim world”, he ventures. Perhaps, he goes on, the president thinks that Islamic State fighters will say: “Oh, that's wonderful.”

Other Republicans, led by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, have accused the president of being “eager” to bring terrorists into the country, and have pressed Democrats⁵ to denounce him (Mr Orman, for his part, calls Mr Obama “absolutely wrong” to want Guantanamo detainees on American soil). Critics are on firm political ground: since 2009 polls have shown two-thirds of Americans opposed to closing Guantanamo and moving detainees to the mainland.

Understandably, Republican leaders want the 2014 election to be a referendum on Mr Obama, and what they see as his weak, naive⁶ handling of a world on fire. Ask Kansans why they do not want to receive any of the 149 remaining Guantanamo detainees, and echoes of that complaint come up. “Sure, we have super-max prisons, they wouldn't escape,” says a retired⁷ oil-worker in Wichita, Ken⁸ Jarvis. But once in America they would be granted lawyers sympathetic to their cause, he predicts, adding darkly: “There's probably Muslim attorneys.” Before long, he thinks, dangerous men would be free to walk the streets.

When Leavenworth last thought it might be receiving Guantanamo detainees, five years ago, 95% of locals were opposed, says the mayor, Mark Preisinger. Not because Leavenworth, a sturdy city of red brick and grey stone beside the Missouri river, is prone⁹ to hysteria. It has been a prison town since the 19th century. Between the army, the federal government, the state of Kansas and a private corrections corporation, five large prisons brood in and around the city. It is a military town, home to elite¹⁰ staff colleges for high-flying officers from America and abroad. The city high school sends between 20 and 30 students a year into the armed forces. Still, residents feel in “lockstep” that the place to keep the detainees is Guantanamo, says the mayor.

That prison camp—built in an American naval¹¹ base maintained by treaty on Cuba's eastern tip—is called a legal limbo¹², scoffs¹³ a local Republican state senator, Steve Fitzgerald. Well, good. “Why shouldn't they just rot?” he asks, calling many detainees unfit to enter the criminal-justice system and undeserving of the status of prisoners-of-war.

If we cannot be loved, let us be feared

During these and other Kansan conversations, it becomes clear that the politics of Guantanamo involves not just a verdict on Mr Obama. In this security-tinged election, America is also having a debate about the legacy¹⁴ of George W. Bush. Go back to the 2008 election, and Mr Obama spoke¹⁵ like a man with a sweeping¹⁶ mandate¹⁷ to reverse the priorities of the Bush era. Where his predecessor¹⁸ had held international laws cheap, Team Obama would restore America's global standing¹⁹ (and closing Guantanamo would symbolise that fresh start). America is war-weary, Mr Obama said repeatedly: time for some nation-building at home, and drawing a line under endless war.

The evidence is mounting that Mr Obama misread his mandate. In such conservative places as Leavenworth, people are not sure America is war-weary. “The nation hasn't been at war, it's been the military,” says Eric Hollister, a retired lieutenant-colonel and veteran of Iraq who instructs cadets at the high school. The past 13 years have hardly been like the second world war, he adds, when America dug Victory Gardens to supplement rations²⁰.

The country is certainly fed up with calls to fix the world: Democrats and Republicans alike say it is not America's job to take the lead in solving international problems. But far from thanking Mr Obama for delivering the cautious, diffident foreign policy that such polls would seem to demand, voters are turning on him. The Guantanamo saga²¹ helps to explain this puzzle. Americans do not want endless war. But right now, many put feeling safe above the pursuit of peace.

1 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

2 pedants   

n.卖弄学问的人，学究，书呆子( pedant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Only pedants believe in the advantage of obfuscation. 只有书呆子才相信使人困惑会有好处。 来自辞典例句
• Those cold-blooded pedants are not insensible. 那些冷血腐儒，都不是没有知觉。 来自辞典例句

3 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

4 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

7 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

8 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

9 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

10 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

11 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

12 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

13 scoffs   

嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• [ Scoffs ] Why should a young girl like that love an old fart like me? 为什么一个那样的年轻女孩应该喜欢我这样的老家伙？
• The noise of the moment scoffs at the music of the Eternal. 瞬刻的喧声，讥笑着永恒的音乐。

14 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

15 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

16 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

17 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

18 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

19 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

20 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

21 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。