VOA标准英语2013--Acting Alone in Mali Has its Rewards and Limits

 

Acting¹ Alone in Mali Has its Rewards and Limits

 

French President Francois Hollande received a hero’s welcome in Mali last week. Malians lined up to thank him for sending troops to end a growing insurgency² by Islamist militants³.

Even though the operation is part of the global effort to fight terrorist groups, the French troops worked alone and received only transport, intelligence and logistics support from allies.

Retired⁴ British Brigadier General Ben Barry, now at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, says that's partly because France didn’t need combat help.

“Politically, there’s no hint that the French want to slap either a NATO or a European Union badge on their current intervention," he said.

France also went ahead in spite of the “conflict fatigue” many European countries are experiencing after years of deployment⁶ in Afghanistan. 

“What’s actually causing this is national interest in a way that’s more compelling than Afghanistan was," said Kathleen McInnis, a London-based adjunct fellow of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The French brought lots of high-tech⁷ equipment to Mali, but McInnis says the operation revealed shortcomings. Up to a point, it’s part of a strategy of shared European capabilities⁸, but she says Europe still does not have enough even for a modest operation like this one.

"The number of requirements are going gone up. The capabilities have gone down. And these are capabilities that the Europeans have been told that they need to invest in for some time," said McInnis.

Indeed, the French needed transport planes and other help from the United States and Canada. And McInnis says the pattern could be repeated if militants rise in other parts of North or West Africa.

“Because Africa is very much in France’s interest to remain engage in, and it’s Europe’s backyard, I see France leading the way again and again," she said.”

The French military is already planning for its exit from Mali, as the Malian army takes on some responsibility and West African troops deploy⁵ to help. But Ben Barry says the commitment to Mali cannot end when the French military operation does.

“It’s security. It’s development. It’s politics. It’s intelligence. And it’s got to be done for the long term," he said.

It’s a story heard many times before in conflict zones all over the world. And while aid is flowing again in Mali, the country needs the kind of long-term assistance the international community has not always been good at delivering. 

1 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

2 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

3 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。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 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。

6 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。

7 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

8 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓