VOA慢速英语2009-IN THE NEWS - More US Troops Going to Afghanista

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

This week marked Barack Obama's first month as president -- and his first major action as commander-in-chief. He approved seventeen thousand more troops for Afghanistan. The security situation is getting worse. The Taliban has regrouped with support from al-Qaida, which operates from safe refuge along the border with Pakistan.

President Obama was asked this week by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation if Afghanistan is still winnable.
　
American troops in Kost province, Afghanistan, last April

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "I think Afghanistan is still winnable, in the sense of our ability to ensure that it is not a launching pad for attacks against North America. I think it's still possible for us to stamp out al-Qaida, to make sure that extremism is not expanding but rather is contracting. I think all those goals are still possible, but I think that as a consequence to the war on Iraq, we took our eye off the ball. We have not been as focused as we need to be on all the various steps that are needed in order to deal with Afghanistan."

The president has ordered a full review of American policy there. For now, the deployment¹ in the coming months will be smaller than the top American commander requested. About thirty-eight thousand American troops are there now, plus thirty-two thousand from other NATO members.
　
President Obama in Ottawa, Canada, Thursday for his first foreign trip as president. After heavy losses, Canada plans to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan by 2011.

The Afghan Defense² Ministry³ welcomed Tuesday's announcement.

It came the same day as the United Nations reported that more than two thousand civilians⁵ were killed in Afghanistan last year. That was the most since the American-led invasion in two thousand one that ousted⁶ the Taliban government. The number was up forty percent from two thousand seven.

U.N. investigators⁷ say militants⁸ are responsible for the majority of civilian⁴ deaths. But foreign and Afghan troops killed more civilians last year than the year before.

President Obama has said that the national government "seems very detached from what's going on in the surrounding community." Critics say one big problem is corruption⁹.

The American special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, visited Kabul this week. President Hamid Karzai's term ends in May under the constitution. But election officials have delayed the presidential election until late August. His opponents do not want him to stay until then.

In Islamabad, the Foreign Ministry is defending a new peace agreement in northwestern Pakistan. The government of Swat province signed the deal with representatives of local Taliban militants. The deal is not final yet, but it calls for an Islamic system of justice for the area. Richard Holbrooke says American officials worry that the agreement will "turn into surrender."
　
Hillary Clinton was met on arrival in Beijing on Friday by China's Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi

America's top diplomat¹⁰, Hillary Clinton, made her first foreign trip as secretary of state this week. New secretaries traditionally start with Europe or the Middle East. But her trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China makes her the first in almost fifty years to visit Asia first.

Subjects included economics, climate change and North Korea's nuclear program. Secretary Clinton praised efforts to fight Islamic extremism in Indonesia, where Barack Obama spent part of his childhood. Next week, Japanese Prime Minister Taro¹¹ Aso is to become the first foreign leader to visit the new president at the White House.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember.

1 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

2 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。

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 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。

5 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

6 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

7 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

9 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

10 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

11 taro   

n.芋，芋头

参考例句：

• Main grain crop has taro,corn,banana to wait.主要粮食作物有芋头、玉米、芭蕉等。
• You celebrate your birthday with taro,red bean and butter.用红豆、芋头和黄油给自己过生日。