Afghan President Hamid Karzai summoned the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan on Thursday to demand an explanation for continuing civilian casualties caused by coalition troops. The commander, Army General David McKiernan, expressed "deep regret" about accidental killings in two recent incidents, and pledged to continue efforts to avoid such civilian casualties. The issue has also gotten attention from U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊星期四召见美国和北约驻阿富汗部队指挥官，要求他们对联军部队继续造成平民伤亡做出解释。美国陆军上将麦基尔南对最近两起事件中造成平民意外死亡表示“深深的遗憾”，并保证继续努力避免这类平民伤亡事件。这个问题也引起美国国防部长盖茨的注意。
U.S. defense officials have been focused on the civilian casualty issue for a long time. But they say it is difficult to prevent all civilian casualties because insurgents often hide among civilians and sometimes try to deceive coalition forces into firing on them.
美国国防部官员长期以来一直非常关心阿富汗平民伤亡问题。不过他们表示，很难完全避免平民伤亡，因为暴乱分子常常躲在平民当中，有时还企图让联军部队上当，向平民开火。
In addition, the shortage of coalition troops in Afghanistan has caused a higher reliance on air strikes, which are more likely to cause what the military calls "collateral damage."
另外，驻阿富汗联军缺少兵员，导致更多地依赖空中打击，而空中打击更有可能造成军方所说的“附带伤害”。
That was the case in the most recent incident. NATO says six civilians died in an air strike on Monday in Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan.
In a conversation on Wednesday with U.S. troops, many of them recently returned from Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the civilian casualties "a serious problem," and said he has told his commander in Kabul that protecting Afghan civilians must be one of his main concerns.
美国国防部长盖茨星期三跟美国军人对话时表示，平民伤亡是个“严重问题”。这些军人有许多人最近刚从阿富汗回国。盖茨说，他在喀布尔对美军指挥官说过，保护阿富汗平民安全必须是他重点关心的问题之一。
"General McKiernan has taken some significant steps in terms of changing the way we go about our operations in Afghanistan, including by the Special Forces, to try and take even further measures to avoid civilian casualties and to avoid antagonizing the local population. This is something I worry about a lot. If we lose the Afghan people, we have lost the war," he said.
盖茨说：“麦基尔南将军已经采取一些重要措施，改变在阿富汗的行动方式，包括特种部队的行动方式，争取采取进一步措施避免平民伤亡，避免当地人对联军反感。这是我非常担心的问题。如果我们失去阿富汗人民的支持，我们就打败了这场战争。”
Secretary Gates also called for better cooperation between military units in Afghanistan and the joint civilian-military Provincial Reconstruction Teams. He acknowledged that when military operations kill civilians or destroy local facilities, they hurt the effort to improve the lives of local people and earn their trust and support.
盖茨还要求在阿富汗的部队和军民联合省级重建工作队之间加强合作。他承认，当军事行动造成平民丧生，或者毁坏当地设施，就等于破坏当地人民改善生活的工作、以及争取赢得他们信任和支持的工作。
"I am very concerned [about] how do we keep the Afghan people on our side by helping them understand that we are on their side? And so one of the things that I have talked to General McKiernan about, and that he is taking very seriously, is how do we partner on virtually all of these operations so that if somebody's knocking down the door, it is an Afghan knocking down the door, not an American, or not a German or somebody else? And I think we have made a lot of strides in that," said Gates.
盖茨说：“我非常关心的是如何通过帮助阿富汗人民了解我们跟他们站在一边，以便使他们跟我们站在一起？在我跟麦基尔南将军谈过的事情中，有一件他正在非常认真地解决，就是我们如何在差不多所有行动中进行合作，这样，如果有人把门砸开的话，必须是阿富汗人砸的，而不是美国人、德国人或其他什么人砸的。我认为我们在这个问题上已经做出了很多努力。”
In order to give Afghan troops a more prominent role in providing security for their own people, the U.S. and Afghan governments are working to nearly double the size of the Afghan Army to 120,000 troops.
为了让阿富汗军队在为自己国家人民提供安全保障方面发挥更重要的作用，美国和阿富汗政府在共同努力，争取把阿富汗军队人数增加一倍，达到12万人。
But that will take years. In the meantime, the United States is increasing its troop presence in Afghanistan this year by about 50 percent, and other coalition countries are making smaller increases.
The top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, told ABC television's Good Morning America program this week that the goal is for foreign forces to provide better security for Afghans in the short term and to train Afghan troops to do as much of the job as quickly as possible.
美军参谋长联席会议主席马伦海军上将这个星期在美国广播公司ABC的电视节目《早安美国》上说，在阿富汗的短期目标是，为阿富汗人民改善治安状况，培训阿富汗军队尽快承担更多工作。
"We need the combat troops to provide security for the Afghan people, which is what is missing right now, particularly in southern Afghanistan. And we need the trainers to train the Afghan army and the Afghan police, so that they can take the lead in providing for that security. In the long run, that is really the solution to the security challenge that is there to take care of the Afghan people, who I believe are the center of gravity of this whole situation in Afghanistan," said Admiral Mullen.
马伦说：“我们需要战斗部队为阿富汗人民，特别是南部的人民提供安全保障，他们现在没有这种安全保障。我们需要教官培训阿富汗军队和警察，这样他们才能在提供安全保证的任务中发挥主导作用。从长期看，那样才能真正解决安全难题，就是保护阿富汗人民，我认为，阿富汗整体局势的核心就是保护阿富汗人民。”
The increase in troops will also mean more ground operations and possibly fewer air strikes - the kind of attack that most often causes civilian casualties.
在阿富汗增加兵力还意味着增加地面行动，可能减少空中打击，而空中打击造成的平民伤亡最多。 |