VOA常速英语2013--奥巴马在埃及问题上遭遇困境

Obama Caught in Dilemma 1 on Egypt 奥巴马在埃及问题上遭遇困境

WHITE HOUSE — As the Egyptian military continues its bloody 2 crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood 3 and other protesters, U.S. President Barack Obama is facing a dwindling 4 range of options for dealing 5 with the crisis. Obama has, so far, refused to cut off U.S. aid to Egypt's interim 6 government.

The president has made it clear that his administration is rethinking its dealings with Egypt's military.

总统明确表示，其政府正重新考虑与埃及的军事演习。

“While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians 7 are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” he said during a Thursday announcement that the U.S. had cancelled upcoming, biannual 8 joint 9 military exercises.

“尽管我们希望维持与埃及的关系，我们的传统合作却不能继续下去，因为平民在街头被杀，人民的权利被压制。”

Obama has avoided labeling the military's overthrow 10 of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi last month as a "coup 11." Such a statement would automatically halt $1.3 billion of U.S. aid each year to Egypt's military. The White House is worried that doing so would diminish U.S. influence with the military leaders.

奥巴马一直回避将上月军方推翻埃及总统穆罕默德·穆尔西的事件列为“政变”，这样的声明将自动终止美国每年向埃及提供的13亿美元的援助。白宫担心这将削弱美国对埃及军方领导人的影响力。

Some prominent American Muslims, including Mahdi Bray 12, were hoping for tougher action.

一些有声望的美国穆斯林，如Mahdi Bray都希望能采取更强硬的措施。

“We, the American Muslim Alliance, we want to make it very clear that we will continue a vigorous campaign of what we call 'no cash for coup' — calling for the immediate 13 suspension of U.S. assistance [and] financial aid to Egypt as the result of, indeed, the coup,” said Bray.

“我们美国穆斯林同盟希望明确表示，因为出现这场政变，我们将继续进行‘不给政变提供现金’的声势浩大的运动，呼吁立即停止美国向埃及提供的财政援助。”

Tarek Radwan, associate director for research at Washington’s Rafik Hariri Center, calls that a positive step. But he said the United States' ability to affect the behavior of Egypt's armed forces was fading.

Tarek Radwan是华盛顿拉菲克·哈里里研究中心的副主任，他称这是积极的措施。但他说美国影响埃及武装部队的能力正在减弱。然而，总统已取消与埃及的联合军演，“因此，今天早上我通知埃及政府，我们将取消原定于下月的一年两度的联合军演。”

“Because the engagement with Egypt has been so limited and so narrowly focused, we have very few options, and thereby 14 have very little influence over what is going to happen now. The last semblance 15 of assertive 16 action that we can take is to, in fact, suspend military aid,” said Radwan.

“因为与埃及的关联已经很有限很狭窄，我们的选择余地不多，因此对未来的时态影响力很小。我们最不能采取的貌似果断的行动就是终止军事援助。”

Egypt's military leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, was probably willing to risk losing the U.S. aid, according to Daniel Serwer, a scholar at Washington’s Middle East Institute, because Egypt's neighbors were making much bigger donations.

美国中东研究所学者丹尼尔·瑟沃尔说，因为埃及的邻国将提供更多捐赠，埃及军事领袖西塞将军可能愿意冒失去美国援助的风险。

“I think General Sissi, before this crackdown, must have calculated, ‘I lose the American assistance.’ What he calculated [was] that this was an existential struggle between him and the Muslim Brotherhood, and that he had to do this in order to survive,” Serwer said.

“我想西塞将军在这次镇压之前一定考虑过，‘我失去了美国的援助。’他权衡的是，他自己和穆斯林兄弟会之间存在着斗争，为了存活下去他必须这么做。”

But Radwan said a stoppage of aid could have some impact. He did not believe the Egyptian military wanted to jeopardize 17 relations with Washington.

但Radwan说，停止援助会产生一定影响。他认为埃及军方不希望破坏与美国的关系。

“The aid is not only about the money. It is about the relationship itself. It is about the ability to engage with the United States, and cutting that off would begin a sense of isolation 18 that I do not think even the Egyptian military would be very comfortable with,” said Radwan.

“援助不仅与资金有关，还与两国关系本身有关。涉及与美国交往的能力问题，切断与美国的关系意味着开始孤立的状态，我认为埃及军方是不愿意这么做的。”

As the crisis continues in Egypt, Obama's policies are likely to evolve further. 

随着埃及危机的继续，奥巴马的政策可能还会继续改变。