美国总统候选人辩论对伊增兵战略

即将获得美国共和党总统候选人提名的麦凯恩参议员继续指责他的民主党对手宣扬美国在伊拉克的失败主义政策。在麦凯恩发起这场口头攻击前，奥巴马参议员刚刚结束了为期一周的海外之行，包括对伊拉克和阿富汗的访问。

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

奥巴马参议员一直主张为美军从伊拉克撤退制定时间表，并且在阿富汗部署更多的美国部队。

During his trip, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee was clearly heartened by Iraqi government statements endorsing 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 deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

在奥巴马出国访问期间，伊拉克政府发表声明，支持美国在2010年之前撤军的想法，而布什政府也说，需要把更多注意力集中在阿富汗日益恶化的安全局势上。显然，这些发展都令奥巴马感到鼓舞。

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 opposition 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.

不过，如果说上周发生的事情似乎对奥巴马在伊拉克和阿富汗问题上的立场有利，那么奥巴马的共和党对手麦凯恩则让人们注意到，奥巴马曾反对去年施行的伊拉克增兵战略。许多人认为，这一战略在很大程度上导致了伊拉克目前较低的暴力水平。

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

麦凯恩在美国广播公司“本周”节目上指责奥巴马在伊拉克问题上采取的立场是出于政治利弊的权宜之计，并说这将会危及美国在伊拉克的整个使命。

"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 nomination 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 chaos, genocide, increased Iranian influence, and perhaps al-Qaida establishing a base again [in Iraq]."

他说：“奥巴马并不明白这里的利益关系。他选择的政治途径是为了帮助他获得民主党提名。而我走了一条不受欢迎的路，那就是支持增兵战略，因为我知道我们必须在伊拉克取得胜利。我们也正在取得胜利。如果我们按照奥巴马参议员所希望的那么做，那么伊拉克早就陷入混乱、种族清洗之中了，伊朗在那里的影响力也会加大，可能连基地组织都已经在伊拉克重新建立了基地。”

For Obama, the important question is not whether the surge was a good idea, but how best to deploy 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 spoke on NBC's Meet The Press program.

对于奥巴马来说，问题的关键不在于增兵战略是不是一个好主意。他认为，美国在2003年入侵伊拉克是一个错误的决定，因此最重要的问题是如何才能最好地部署美国有限的兵力和财力。奥巴马在美国全国广播公司“面对媒体”节目上说：

"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."

“我已经说过很多次了，毫无疑问，我们的部队在伊拉克是发挥了作用的。而作为下一任军队统帅，我的任务是作出一个决定，那就是：什么样的战争是该打的，以及我们要怎样去打？我认为，我们从一开始的时候就应该集中精力处理阿富汗问题。我们应当先完成在阿富汗的任务。然而我们并没有完成。不过，我们现在有这个机会继续前进，开始逐步把在在伊拉克的军力重新部署，以确保我们完成在阿富汗的作战任务。”

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

美国的民意调查结果显示，这两位总统候选人实力接近，难分伯仲，而大多数美国人把经济问题列为他们最关心的问题