pbs高端访谈:军队性侵事件增多总统发声谴责

 　　RAY SUAREZ:The problem of sexual assaults in the nation's armed forces is getting worse, and maybe much worse. The issue drew the national spotlight¹ today and a presidential rebuke².

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:We're not going to tolerate this stuff, and there will be accountability.

　　RAY SUAREZ:The news of growing sexual assaults in the military raised the president's hackles at a news conference with the president of South Korea.

　　PRESIDENT OBAMA:Let's start with the principle that sexual assault is an outrage³. It is a crime. That's true for society at large, and if it's happening inside our military, then whoever carries it out is betraying the uniform that they're wearing.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Mr. Obama spoke⁴ as an annual Pentagon study reported sexual assaults in the military rose from just under 3,300 in 2012 to nearly 3,400 last year. But it also found that up to 26,000 cases went unreported.

　　At a Senate hearing this morning, the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, struck sparks with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, suggesting it's not always a commander's fault if victims don't come forward.

　　GEN. MARK WELSH, U.S. Air Force: The things that cause people to not report are—primarily are really not chain of command. It's: I don't want my family to know. I don't want my spouse⁵ to know or my boyfriend or girlfriend to know. I'm embarrassed that I'm in this situation.

　　It's the self-blame that comes with the crime. That is overridingly on surveys over the years the reasons that most victims don't report. And I don't think it's any different in the military. Prosecution⁶ rates in the Air Force for this crime ...

　　SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y.: I think it's very different in the military. I think you're precisely⁷ wrong about that. Everything is about the chain of command.

　　RAY SUAREZ:The president said today the military has to exponentially increase its efforts to address the problem. And Defense⁸ Secretary Chuck Hagel announced he's issuing new orders to change the culture in the ranks.

　　DEFENSE SECRETARY CHUCK HAGEL, United States: Together, everyone in this department at every level of command will continue to work together everyday to establish an environment of dignity and respect, where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned⁹ or ignored.

　　RAY SUAREZ:The Pentagon report came just days Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, who runs the Air Force unit on sexual assault, was himself arrested for allegedly groping a woman. And, in February, Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms overturned a captain's conviction on aggravated¹⁰ sexual assault.

　　Now Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is holding up Helms' nomination¹¹ for vice¹² chair of the U.S. Space Command. She spoke at today's hearing.

　　SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, D-Mo.: The general said, no, no, we believe the member of the military. That is the crux¹³ of the problem here, because if a victim does not believe that the system is capable of believing her, there's no point in risking your entire career.

　　RAY SUAREZ:In response, lawmakers are pursuing multiple kinds of legislation on the problem. One could strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse convictions.

　　I'm joined now by Mark Thompson, the Washington deputy bureau chief and national security correspondent for TIME and writer of the Battleland blog.

　　And, Mark, you have seen the reports. You have seen the Pentagon's self-reporting on this. Does that 26,000 unreported assaults a year look like a solid number? Where does it come from?

　　MARK THOMPSON, TIME: Well, it's an extrapolated number, Ray, from anonymous¹⁴ phone surveys done by the Pentagon of military people. And so it's sort of squishy to begin with.

　　What's particularly striking about the number, of course, is from 2010 to 2012, that number grew by 35 percent, whereas the hard number, the number of cases that actually were brought forward by people complaining about sexual assaults in the military only went up by roughly six percent from 3,200 to 3,400.

　　So even though they are getting more reports, those that are unreported are going up even faster.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Well, a number of unreported cases nine times larger than the number of reported cases ...

　　MARK THOMPSON:Right.

　　RAY SUAREZ:... is that bigger than the service chiefs even realized at first?

　　MARK THOMPSON:Well, I think, number one, it is bigger than what you see in the civilian¹⁵ world, where the proportion of reported is an order or two bigger than what you see in the military.

　　But this is not a new problem. This is a longstanding problem. I was on this show 16 years ago talking about it. It remains¹⁶ a problem, what's happening. You have got about 14 percent of the military in uniform that are women, and all of a sudden, with these female senators, several of which we just saw, this is not being able to be ignored by the chiefs, the secretary of defense or anybody else.

　　It seems like we may have reached a turning point this weekend with the arrest of this Air Force officer.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Today, at the news conference at the Pentagon, the general in charge of overseeing the management of this problem flipped¹⁷ this on its head in a way and said that part of it is that there's more reporting.

　　MARK THOMPSON:Yes, I think ...

　　RAY SUAREZ:So, this is good news, that they're changing the culture.

　　MARK THOMPSON:Yes, to go back to what I just said, the math shows that it's going up faster in the unreported realm than in the reported realm.

　　We see this throughout the military whenever there's a bad problem, be it mental health issues, PTSD, anything that has to be self-reported. Whenever the numbers go up, the Pentagon is always very quick to say, it's because we have removed stigma¹⁸, we have put signs all over the bases and posts encouraging people to come forward.

　　And I think there is some truth to that, but essentially¹⁹ it remains a huge problem and they're just getting at a bit of it by reducing the stigma.

　　RAY SUAREZ:And, at the same time, the arrest of the Air Force's senior officer in charge of getting those numbers down, arrested himself during an accused sexual assault.

　　MARK THOMPSON:Yes, I mean, that is the problem. That's what stunned²⁰ everybody I spoke to at the Pentagon over the last couple of days.

　　I mean, a couple of things about Lt. Col. Krusinski's case. He was picked for that job specifically. And people I talk to suggest, well, he couldn't have been -- you know if someone is right for such a sensitive post. The Air Force put him in that post. A lot of people are asking questions about that now.

　　And we're just going to have to—the Air Force has asked to take this case away from Arlington County, which is where the Pentagon is located, and prosecute²¹ it on their own. We will learn what happens on that score come Thursday.

　　RAY SUAREZ:You mentioned the female senators. There are also more members of Congress willing to push back on this issue, including a legislative²² attempt to take the adjudication of these issues out of the chain of the command. What does the Pentagon say in response?

　　MARK THOMPSON:Well, Sec. Hagel was asked about that today. He doesn't like it. He wants it to stay within the chain of command.

　　The advocates of change are saying, now, listen, we're not going to take it out of the Pentagon. We're going to keep it in the Pentagon, but it is going to be staffed, for lack of a better word, by a professional force of military sexual trauma²³ advocates, who will be fair, won't be affected²⁴, because they won't be in the chain of command of the victim or the accused.

　　And victims there, advocates believe, will be able to get a fairer shot at their day in court.

　　RAY SUAREZ:How is this handled in other country's militaries, where they have an even higher percentage of women in the ranks?

　　MARK THOMPSON:Yes. It doesn't—it seems to be a particularly—particularly nagging²⁵ problem in the U.S. military, just as gays in the military were a big problem here, and it wasn't a problem anywhere else.

　　I don't know if it's something in the American psyche²⁶ or something in the American military, but it's a particular combination that has generated this for a long time.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Mark Thompson, thanks a lot for being with us.

　　MARK THOMPSON:You bet.

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 rebuke   

v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise

参考例句：

• He had to put up with a smart rebuke from the teacher.他不得不忍受老师的严厉指责。
• Even one minute's lateness would earn a stern rebuke.哪怕迟到一分钟也将受到严厉的斥责。

3 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

4 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。

5 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

6 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

7 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 condoned   

v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Terrorism can never be condoned. 决不能容忍恐怖主义。
• They condoned his sins because he repented. 由于他的悔悟，他们宽恕了他的罪。 来自辞典例句

10 aggravated   

使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火

参考例句：

• If he aggravated me any more I shall hit him. 假如他再激怒我，我就要揍他。
• Far from relieving my cough, the medicine aggravated it. 这药非但不镇咳，反而使我咳嗽得更厉害。

11 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 crux   

adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点

参考例句：

• The crux of the matter is how to comprehensively treat this trend.问题的关键是如何全面地看待这种趋势。
• The crux of the matter is that attitudes have changed.问题的要害是人们的态度转变了。

14 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

15 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

17 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

18 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

19 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

20 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

21 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

22 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

23 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

24 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

25 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

26 psyche   

n.精神；灵魂

参考例句：

• His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche.他对这个神话的探讨揭示了美国人的心理。
• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche.她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。