2006年VOA标准英语-President Bush's Concept of the Universality of

By Peter Fedynsky
Washington, D.C.
05 July 2006
 
Watch Freedom Report

 
President Bush 
  
In defending his decision to invade Iraq, President Bush has often said that people will someday wonder if Americans were true to their country's fundamental belief in the universality of freedom and were willing to act on it. VOA's Peter Fedynsky examines the notion of universal freedom in U.S. history and how some earlier presidents viewed America's responsibility to spread liberty abroad.

President Bush recently spoke¹ about the universality of freedom to American troops in Iraq. He also raised the issue at a news conference after the U.S.-European Union summit in Vienna, with a group of African democracy activists², and in Budapest to the people of Hungary.

Bush said, "The desire for liberty is universal because it is written by our Creator into the hearts of every man, woman, and child on this Earth." 

Thomas Jefferson   
  
America's third president and author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, expressed in that document the idea that people are endowed by the Creator with an inalienable right to liberty. David Boaz is executive vice³ president of the Cato Institute think tank in Washington, D.C.  He said, "Nevertheless, there are people who don't like liberty."

Boaz recognizes that slave masters and tyrants⁴ limit the exercise of liberty, but not the innate⁵ and inextinguishable desire for freedom by peoples everywhere, regardless of religious conviction. "As people, we have these rights, and that's one of the things that makes it universal because, of course, the Christian⁶ God is not universally worshipped in the world," he said. "I do believe that liberty is a universal value and people can come to appreciate it through different religious and philosophical⁷ systems."

 
David Boaz
  
Most critics of the Iraq War do not dispute President Bush's goal of creating an Iraqi democracy but rather his use of military force to help liberate⁸ the country. David Boaz says many nations have paid for their liberty in blood, though he questions whether the army of one country should go into another in the name of freedom.

Boaz said, "I think it's hard to teach people freedom when you're militarily occupying their country.  I think the United States should be a beacon⁹ of liberty. As John Quincy Adams said, "America should be friend and well-wisher to the liberty of all, but the vindicator¹⁰ only of her own." 

John Quincy Adams, America's sixth president, warned Americans against engaging in armed struggles for the independence of other nations. Adams said the glory of the United States is "not dominion¹¹, but liberty" and that "her march is the march of the mind."

 
Woodrow Wilson 
  
Nonetheless, President Woodrow Wilson sent troops overseas in World War One after campaigning on a pledge to keep America out of the conflict. German submarine attacks on U.S. shipping¹² prompted Wilson to act. Often described as America's most idealistic president, Wilson declared, "The world must be made safe for democracy."

During his campaign for White House, President Bush pledged not to engage in nation-building abroad. He changed his position after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Nile Gardner  
  
Nile Gardiner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher¹³ Freedom Center at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., says President Bush now seeks to advance liberty as a form of national security. "President Bush clings to a highly idealistic international world view, combined at the same time, though, with a hard-edged sense of what is in the U.S. national interest," Gardiner said.

Bush says the Middle East without democracy will remain a place of "stagnation¹⁴, resentment¹⁵, and violence ready for export." He also said, "The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden¹⁶ terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region. Iraqi democracy will succeed -- and that success will send forth¹⁷ the news, from Damascus to Teheran -- that freedom can be the future of every nation."

Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation says there are skeptics in the Middle East who confuse democratization with westernization. He notes, however, that democracy would allow Iraqis to develop their own values. "We are pushing very hard for an indigenous¹⁸ form of democratic society to be established," he said. "We simply cannot impose our own precise vision of how Iraqi society should develop. Ultimately, it will be up to the Iraqis themselves."

Critics of Bush's Iraq policy say liberty should be spread through peaceful means, such as diplomacy¹⁹, trade, and exchange programs. The President says Iraq is the front line in the war against terror, which poses a global threat too serious to ignore.

1 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。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 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。

4 tyrants   

专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物

参考例句：

• The country was ruled by a succession of tyrants. 这个国家接连遭受暴君的统治。
• The people suffered under foreign tyrants. 人民在异族暴君的统治下受苦受难。

5 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

8 liberate   

v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由

参考例句：

• They did their best to liberate slaves.他们尽最大能力去解放奴隶。
• This will liberate him from economic worry.这将消除他经济上的忧虑。

9 beacon   

n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔

参考例句：

• The blink of beacon could be seen for miles.灯塔的光亮在数英里之外都能看见。
• The only light over the deep black sea was the blink shone from the beacon.黑黢黢的海面上唯一的光明就只有灯塔上闪现的亮光了。

10 vindicator   

n.维护者，辩护者，辩明者

参考例句：

11 dominion   

n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图

参考例句：

• Alexander held dominion over a vast area.亚历山大曾统治过辽阔的地域。
• In the affluent society,the authorities are hardly forced to justify their dominion.在富裕社会里，当局几乎无需证明其统治之合理。

12 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

13 thatcher   

n.茅屋匠

参考例句：

• Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher. 汤姆 - 索亚和撒切尔法官同乘一条小艇。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. 撒切尔夫人几乎神经失常，还有波莉姨妈也是。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

14 stagnation   

n. 停滞

参考例句：

• Poor economic policies led to a long period of stagnation and decline. 糟糕的经济政策道致了长时间的经济萧条和下滑。
• Motion is absolute while stagnation is relative. 运动是绝对的，而静止是相对的。

15 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

16 embolden   

v.给…壮胆，鼓励

参考例句：

• Emboldened by the wine,he went over to introduce himself to her.他借酒壮胆，走上前去向她作自我介绍。
• The Prime Minister was steadily emboldened by the discovery that he faced no opposition.发现自己并未遭到反对，首相渐渐有了信心。

17 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

18 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

19 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。