VOA标准英语2008年-McCain, Obama Clash Over Iraq Troop Surge

The presumed Republican presidential nominee¹, Senator John McCain, continues to accuse his Democratic rival of advocating a defeatist U.S. policy for Iraq. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, the verbal salvo follows the conclusion of Senator Barack Obama's weeklong foreign trip that included stops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senator Obama has long advocated a timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, as well as a boost in American forces deployed³ to Afghanistan.

During his trip, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee was clearly heartened by Iraqi government statements endorsing⁴ the concept of withdrawing U.S. troops by 2010, as well as statements by the Bush administration on the need to focus more attention on the deteriorating⁵ security situation in Afghanistan.

But if events of the last week appeared to favor the Obama message on Iraq and Afghanistan, his likely Republican opponent is drawing attention to Obama's opposition⁶ to last year's troop surge in Iraq, believed by many to have contributed greatly to the current low levels of violence in the country.

Speaking on ABC's This Week program, McCain accused Obama of taking a politically expedient⁷ position on Iraq that would have put America's entire mission in jeopardy⁸.

"He [Obama] does not understand what is at stake here," said John McCain. "And he chose to take a political path that helped him get the nomination⁹ of his party. I took a path [in backing the surge] that I knew was unpopular, because I knew we had to win in Iraq. And we are winning in Iraq. And if we had done what Senator Obama wanted done, it would have been chaos¹⁰, genocide, increased Iranian influence, and perhaps al-Qaida establishing a base again [in Iraq]."

For Obama, the important question is not whether the surge was a good idea, but how best to deploy² America's limited military and financial resources going forward, given what he considers an ill-advised U.S. decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The senator spoke¹¹ on NBC's Meet The Press program.

"There is no doubt, and I have said this repeatedly, that our troops [in Iraq] make a difference," said Barack Obama. "My job as the next commander-in-chief is going to be [to] make a decision: what is the right war to fight and how do we fight it? And I think we should have been focused on Afghanistan from the start. We should have finished that job. We have not. But we now have the opportunity, moving forward, to begin a phased redeployment [from Iraq] and make sure we are finishing the job in Afghanistan."

U.S. public opinion surveys show a tight race between the two presidential contenders, with most Americans rating economic issues as their top concerns.

1 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

2 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

3 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

4 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网

5 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

6 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

7 expedient   

adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计

参考例句：

• The government found it expedient to relax censorship a little.政府发现略微放宽审查是可取的。
• Every kind of expedient was devised by our friends.我们的朋友想出了各种各样的应急办法。

8 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

9 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。

10 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

11 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。