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Iraq’s unravelling
伊拉克的解体
The mistakes that made Islamic State
造就IS的祸根
Blood Year: Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror.
血染的一年：IS和反恐战争的失败
WHEN David Kilcullen, a young Australian army officer who had been seconded to America’s State Department as a counter-terrorism strategist, arrived in Baghdad’s Green Zone in late 2005 he found himself at “Ground Zero for the greatest strategic screw up since Hitler’s invasion of Russia”. Just as it is said that the first world war was the calamity from which sprang all the other calamities of the 20th century, so too was the bungled aftermath of the invasion of Iraq the screw-up from which all other screw-ups followed.
重点词汇：
1 unravel 解体；崩溃；瓦解
2 second 临时调派；短期调任 （发音不同）
3 State Department （美国）国务院
4 strategist 战略家；善于筹划部署的人
5 baghdad 巴格达
6 Green Zone 绿色（在美军控制下的安全）区域
7 Ground Zero 开始; 起点; 爆心投影点;
8 screw up 搞糟；搅乱；弄坏
9 invasion 入侵，侵略; 侵害
10 calamity 灾难；灾祸
11 spring 突然活跃起来;突然出现
12 bungle 笨拙地做；失败
13 aftermath（战争、事故、不快事情的）后果，创伤
听力原文:
In his new book, Mr Kilcullen gives an unflinching insider’s account of how mistakes and missed opportunities led inexorably to the events of 2014. This is the “blood year” of his title, when Islamic State (IS) began its blitzkrieg through Iraq that culminated in the seizure of Mosul, the country’s second-biggest city, and the approach almost to Baghdad. Eighteen months after Barack Obama assembled his international coalition to “degrade and defeat” IS, the self-styled “caliphate” still holds Mosul and a string of other Iraqi cities, while controlling much of eastern Syria including Raqqa, its “capital” since 2013.
重点词汇：
1 unflinching 不屈不挠的；果敢的；坚定的；不畏缩的
2 account 描述；叙述；报告
3 inexorable 不可阻挡的；无法改变的
4 blitzkrieg 闪电战；闪击战
5 culminate （以某种结果）告终；（在某一点）结束
6 seizure 夺取；占领；控制
7 mosul 摩苏尔（伊拉克北部城市）
8 self-styled 自封的；自诩的
9 caliphate 哈里发的地位,哈里发的辖地
10 degrade（使）退化，降解；分解
听力原文:
There is plenty of blame to go round. Mr Kilcullen’s contempt for George W. Bush’s defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is searing. If invading Iraq was an irresponsible distraction from the real fight against al-Qaeda, Mr Rumsfeld’s insistence on a “light footprint” strategy meant that the number of troops available to contain the entirely predictable (and predicted) chaos following the removal of Saddam Hussein was “criminally” inadequate.
重点词汇：
1 contempt 蔑视；轻蔑；鄙视
2 sear 烧灼；灼伤；烤焦；轻煎
3 distraction 分散注意力的事；使人分心的事
4 al-Qaeda 基地组织;
5 insistence 坚决要求；坚持；固执
6 chaos 混乱；杂乱；紊乱
7 criminally 刑法上；刑事上；在犯罪方面
8 defence secretary 国防大臣/部长
9 inadequate 不充分的；不足的；不够的
听力原文:
This was compounded by disbanding the Iraqi army and then dismantling the ruling Baath party, thus rendering most of the country’s qualified middle class unemployable. The conditions for the debacle to come were now complete. It was in the ensuing years of sectarian bloodletting that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the predecessor to IS, emerged under the psychotic leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the most potent force in the insurgency.
重点词汇：
1 compound 使加重；使恶化
2 disband 解散；解体；散伙
3 dismantle （逐渐）废除，取消
4 baath party 阿拉伯复兴社会党
5 render 使成为；使变得；使处于某状态
6 debacle 大败；崩溃；垮台；灾祸
7 sectarian（宗教）教派的，派性的
8 ensue 接着发生；因而产生
9 bloodletting 杀戮；伤害; 放血疗法
10 predecessor 前任
11 psychotic 精神病患者
12 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 阿布·穆萨布·扎卡维;
13 potent 有效的，强有力的; 有权势的; 烈性的; 有说服力的;
14 insurgency 起义；叛乱；造反
听力原文:
Yet Mr Kilcullen is full of praise for Mr Bush’s commitment to the troop “surge” in 2007 led by General David Petraeus. Mr Bush may have made a lousy call over Iraq in the first place, but he understood the moral and reputational imperative to repair some of the damage and was sufficiently flexible to apply new methods when old ones had failed.
重点词汇：
1 surge 急剧上升；飞涨；激增
2 lousy 非常糟的；极坏的；恶劣的
3 imperative 重要紧急的；迫切的；急需处理的
听力原文:
The same could not be said for his successor, Mr Obama. As Mr Kilcullen sees it, by the time the new president took office in 2009 Iraq was in a much better place. AQI had been more or less eradicated, the violence had largely abated and, under American guidance, the government of Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad showed some willingness to share power with Sunnis and Kurds. But Mr Obama, instead of maintaining enough boots on the ground to keep things going in the right direction, headed for the exit at the first opportunity when, in late 2010, he and Mr al-Maliki failed to agree to a deal extending the legal status of American forces in Iraq
重点词汇
1 eradicate 根除；消灭；杜绝
2 abate（使）减弱，减退，减轻，减少
3 Nouri al-Maliki 努里·马利基
4 Sunnis and Kurds 逊尼派和库尔德人
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