经济学人下载:中东的解密者 弗瑞德·韩礼德

He stayed until 1983. He marched against the Vietnam war, summered at a student work camp in Cuba and trekked with Dhofari guerrillas, who were fighting the British-trained soldiers of the Sultan of Oman. At another time, a brainy left-winger interested in foreign affairs might well have entered the Labour Party and become foreign secretary or secretary of defence. Mr Halliday chose a stonier path.
他于1983年退出《新左派评论》。他参加过反对越战的游行，曾在古巴的一个学生作业营地避暑，曾与佐法尔的游击队员一起长途跋涉（这些游击队员当时正与阿曼地区受过英国人训练的苏丹士兵交锋）。在另一些时候，一位对外交事务感兴趣的足智多谋的左派分子或许会加入工党，成为外相或国防大臣。而韩礼德先生选择了一条更为崎岖的道路。

In the early 1980s he began a winding journey away from the radical left. It was not a prodigal's return to neoconservatism, from one simplicity to another. He looked for a less dogmatic politics that combined liberal values, respect for human rights and social equity. He hoped the space for such a social-democratic outlook existed in regions he knew best, beyond Europe and the United States. He was too shrewd to believe that it must exist. He was nevertheless withering with anyone who claimed that the persistence of autocratic and theocratic attitudes meant that it could not exist. As with God and Marx before, he thought of political values as universal.
十九世纪八十年代早期，他开始了一次曲折的旅程，离开了激进的左派。这并不是浪子回头般的回到新保守主义，从一个简单的主义换到另一个。他是在寻求一种教条主义更少的、结合了自由主义价值观的、尊重人权和社会公平的政治。他希望这一社会民主主义的愿景能够存在于欧洲和美国之外他最了解的地区。他到是不至于愚蠢到相信那一定会存在。然而，他鄙视任何声称独裁和神权政治的留存即意味着该政治理念不可能存活的人。就像先前对于上帝和马克思一样，他认为政治观点也具有普世价值。

He also favoured outside intervention to rid people of oppressors. A Soviet-backed regime was preferable to the Taliban in Afghanistan, and he blamed the United States for creating a seedbed for Islamist terror there. “Bin Laden”, he said, “is the illegitimate child of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.” He was for removing Saddam Hussein, though he thought the occupiers recklessly ill prepared. To the enemies this earned him on the left, he retorted: “The future of humanity does not lie in the back streets of Fallujah.”
他同样支持以外部干预的方式使被压迫的人民摆脱暴君的统治。对付阿富汗的塔利班组织，一个有苏维埃支持的政权更可取；他也谴责美国在阿富汗制造了伊斯兰恐怖主义的温床。“本·拉登”，他说，“是罗纳德·里根和玛格丽特·撒切尔的私生子”。他站在推翻萨达姆·侯赛因的一方，然而他认为占领军的准备糟糕鲁莽。他的反对者指出他又回到了左派阵营，他则反驳道：“人道主义的未来不是位于费卢杰的偏僻街道里。”

Mr Halliday published more than 20 books. Ranging wide, he was not always right or consistent. He probably underplayed the force of faith in politics. Yet he had a nose for looming trouble, as his choice of travel spots in the 1970s attests: Cyprus, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan. He grasped the social instabilities of the Middle East, and sensed that they would burst out in new ways once the cold war ended. Diplomats and politicians, including Tony Blair, were glad of his advice.
韩礼德先生出版了二十多本书。范围广泛，他并不是一贯正确或者始终前后一致。他或许没有充分表达出政治中信仰的力量，然而他对麻烦的迫近却很有远见，这从他七十年代在旅游地点的选择上就能看出：塞浦路斯、也门、伊朗和阿富汗。他预见到了中东的社会动荡，意识到了一旦冷战结束，他们可能会以新的形势爆发。外交官和政客们（包括托尼·布莱尔）都很乐意听到他的建议。

Looking for a tidy thread in Mr Halliday's views may be mistaken. His achievement was to be a personal bridge. He introduced Westerners to Middle Easterners who were neither hostile nor exotic, but hoped for the same things and treasured the same values as they did.
若想在韩礼德先生的观点中找到一条清晰的脉络，那你就错了。他的成就是成为了一座个人桥梁。他将西方人介绍给既不排外也不崇洋的中东人，但却和他们有着同样的希望，珍视着同样的价值观。