VOA标准英语2010年-US Defense Chief to Reassure Pakistan

U.S. Defense¹ Secretary Robert Gates is in Pakistan for two days of meetings with civilian² and military leaders, mainly to discuss America's strategy for Afghanistan.  Gates says he hopes he can assure Pakistan that the United States wants to be an ally "for the long haul."

The arrival of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Pakistan Thursday marked his first visit in the year since Barack Obama became president.

Gates met with several Pakistani leaders, including his counterpart, Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, the country's military chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Before landing in Islamabad, Gates told reporters on board his aircraft that the main focus of his trip will be to discuss President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy.

The strategy calls for the deployment³ of tens of thousands of more troops in the first half of this year to Afghanistan.  The plan also calls for the possible beginning of a troop withdrawal⁴ in the middle of next year.

Gates said he wants to make it clear on this trip that the United States plans to have a long-term partnership⁵ with Pakistan.

"We are in this for the long haul and intend to continue to be a partner of theirs for far into the future," he said.

Gates also said he hopes to convince Pakistan to expand its counterterrorism operations.  Pakistani Army spokesman Athar Abbas said Thursday Pakistan does not plan to expand its offensive against the militants⁶ in the northwest of the country for six months to a year.  He says the Pakistani military needs time to stabilize⁷ the gains it has already made.

Pakistani paramilitary troops patrol on the outskirt of Bara, the main town of Pakistani Khyber tribal⁸ region along Afghan border (File)

However Gates says the United States wants Pakistan to target syndicates of the Taliban that take refuge in Pakistan but strike at coalition⁹ forces in Afghanistan.

"You can't ignore one part of this cancer and pretend it won't have some impact closer to home," he said.

But Quaid-i-Azam University associate professor of International Relations, Ishtiaq Ahmad, tells VOA that Pakistan has not forgotten the fallout from the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan more than 20 years ago.

Pakistan partnered with the United States and its Afghan allies in fighting the Soviets¹¹.  But when the former Soviet¹⁰ Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, the United States largely left the region.  Ahmad says this caused a power vacuum that allowed the Taliban to rise to power.

The professor says President Obama's announcement of a troop pullout from Afghanistan starting in mid-2011 is worrying to Pakistan.

"Pakistanis cannot be expected to really firmly guarantee and pursue a counterterrorism strategy that does not make any distinctions between one Taliban group and another Taliban group," he said.

Pakistan currently is engaged in a fight against one faction¹² of Taliban that is headquartered in the country's South Waziristan tribal region.  The government blames these so-called Pakistani Taliban for a series of attacks across the country that has killed hundreds of civilians¹³.

But so far, Pakistan has resisted U.S. pressure to attack the Afghan Taliban on its side of the border.

1 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。

2 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。

3 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。

4 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

5 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

6 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。

7 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

8 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

9 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

10 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

11 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

12 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

13 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。