Bush's Visit to Baghdad
Recently, I was having a quiet, early evening drink with an acquaintance, who is close to the White House inner circle, when talk turned - as it invariably does in this town - to the next Presidential election. In a bar lined with black and white photos of past commanders in chief -- he listened politely, as I advanced a few fairly conventional theories about how a future one might get elected. As I paused expectantly -- waiting for a few words of insider wisdom - his lips curled upwards, in a gently mocking smile, and he gave a little shake of his head.
"It's simple" - he said, calmly taking a sip of his drink - "the winner will be the person who best understands that the most important task of any US President for the foreseeable future is to hunt down and kill the terrorists who want to harm us."
That conversation has popped into my mind quite a lot, over the past ten days -as I've gazed at television screens and news stands, dominated by the bruised and swollen face of a dead, Abu Musab al Zarqawi -- the insurgent leader, who was successfully hunted down and killed by the Americans in Iraq.
Zarqawi's death - coupled with the birth of a new, fully-formed Iraqi government -provided the launching pad for President Bush's flying visit to Baghdad on Tuesday; his night time flit from the Camp David strategy pow-wow - with the words "I'm losing altitude, I'm going to bed" Clearly, Presidential code for - "I'm about to gain altitude - and stay up beyond my usual bedtime, on a night flight…"
What he'd been hosting at Camp David had been described as a war council. For - while millions of Americans may think otherwise - few decision makers here in Washington - whether in government or opposition - would publicly disagree with the idea that the United States is at war. It's a point that the rest of the world often forgets - as it struggles to assess America's actions and motives…
As for the motives behind the President's five hour visit to Baghdad - well, whether you call it a bold, long overdue initiative - or a crude PR stunt - it's hard to deny that - in the short term, at least -- it WAS good for public relations. Mr Bush has seen a small - but, for the White House at least - highly welcome "Baghdad bounce" in the opinion polls - and his trip has helped to reinforce the desired impression, that the administration's Iraq strategy has a new energy and sense of purpose..
It's ironic, perhaps, that the face of this new energized mood is that of a dead man; the ubiquitous, Zarqawi - whose final minutes have been discussed in a sometimes gleefully forensic way, by parts of the American media. The Pentagon has even put his image - with a huge x through it -- on a briefing document for congress; the same Pentagon that's banned the media from filming the arrival of coffins containing US soldiers, killed in Iraq - who now number over two and a half thousand..
But it's three other unseen dead bodies - the men who hanged themselves at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp last weekend -- who've dealt the United States perhaps the biggest public relations blow of the week. Not the men themselves, but the state department official who described their deaths as a good PR move, in a turn of phrase that can only be described as - well - a bad PR move; undermining the US government's attempts to show that its first instinct was to regret the loss of life.
If President Bush regrets the decision to open Guantanamo Bay in the first place - he's certainly not showing it in public. But when he mused at a White House press conference on Wednesday about the excuse it gave people to criticize America, you could sense his frustration.
Opinion polls suggest that the American public's support for Guantanamo Bay is divided about fifty fifty - although it's not really something you bring up in polite conversation here. But even those who are generally in favour of the detention centre - such as a friend of mine, who fought in Iraq - want to see it shut.
And he reckons about eighty per cent of the military share his views.
"Is it because you think what's happening there is inhumane and bad for America's image abroad?" - I asked him the other day.
"It's not so much that," he replied. "It's just we don't see why Americans should be shouldering so much of the responsibility for protecting the free world….".
He paused. "…. and getting so much of the blame."
注释：
acquaintance [E5kweintEns] n. 相识，熟人
invariably [in5veEriEb(E)li] adv. 不变地，总是
mocking [5mCkiN] adj. 嘲笑的，愚弄的
swollen [5swEulEn] adj. 肿胀的
insurgent [in5sE:dVEnt] adj. 起义的
motive [5mEutiv] n. 动机，目的
bold [bEuld] adj. 大胆的
ironic [aiE5rCnik] adj. 说反话的，讽刺的
ubiquitous [ju:5bikwitEs] adj. 到处存在的，（同时）普遍存在的
gleefully [5^li:fuli] adj. 愉快地
forensic [fE5rensik] adj. 公开辩论的
coffin [5kCfin] n. 棺材
instinct [5instiNkt] n. 本能
muse [mju:z] v. 沉思
reckon [5rekEn] vt. 估计，猜想
inhumane [7inhju(:)5mein] adj. 残忍的
布什的巴格达之行
最近的一个平静的傍晚，我和朋友聚在一起喝东西，他和白宫的核心圈子关系颇深。我们的话题很自然地转到下届的总统选举，这个城市的聊天话题总跳不出这样。我们所在的酒吧贴满了历任指挥官的黑白照片。当我滔滔不绝的说道未来总统如何才能当选--而这些说法不过只是一些传统的观点，他很有礼貌的听我发表。我顿了顿，期待他这个知情人士能给我一些真知灼见。没想他撇了撇嘴，带着多少有些嘲讽的笑容对我摇头。
“很简单，”他稳稳的端起杯子啜了一口，“任何一个当选的美国总统最重要的任务就是追捕并且消灭那些蓄意伤害我们的恐怖分子。能完全明白这一点的就是赢家。”
这次谈话使我感受颇深。过去的十多天，我始终关注着电视屏幕和新闻报摊。到处都是阿布·穆萨布·扎卡维那张瘀肿的脸，他是伊拉克统一圣战组织的领导人，被美军在伊拉克成功捕获并枪杀。
扎卡维的死亡随同装备齐全的新伊拉克政府的诞生，为星期二布什的巴格达之行铺设了垫板。晚上他像是中了邪一样地突然改变戴维营的战俘策略，说道“我正在失去我的地位，我打算休息了”。很显然，这是总统先生的暗号--他不过是想说：“我将重新坐稳我的位子，坚持不懈，把平常的就寝时间放在一边，在晚上的航班上……”
布什过去组织的“戴维营”曾被形容为参议院的一场战争。华盛顿的少数决策者--不管是来自执政党或是在野党，会公开否认美国正处于战时状态，而数百万美国民众却不这么想。这一点通常会被世界上其它国家的人所忽略--在他们试着评价美国所采取的行动及其动机时。
至于总统这次五小时的巴格达之行后面的动机，不管你称它是一个蓄谋已久却又迟迟没有兑现的大胆的行动，或是一个粗糙的公众关系的表演，很难否认就目前来说，至少在短时间内这是个很好的公关策略。但是布什先生已经在民意测验中看到一小部分人 对“巴格达反弹”深表好感，至少对于白宫来说是这样的。这次访问有助于补偿民众的期望，政府的伊拉克战略呈现新的活力和意义。
讽刺的是，或许这种新的令人振奋的情绪竟源自于一个死者。部分美国媒体的大肆报道使扎卡维活在世上的最后几分钟成了人们不无愉快的谈资。五角大楼甚至把画了大叉的扎卡维的照片放入国会的简报中；与此同时，五角大楼禁止媒体拍摄死于伊拉克的美军士兵灵柩返回的场景，这些死亡人数已超过两千五百人。
但是还有三个死尸被忽视了--上周末关塔那摩湾战俘营有三个战俘悬梁自尽--他们带给美国的也许是这一周里给予公共关系的最大打击。并非是这些自杀的战俘，而是美国政府官员把他们的死亡描述为一次体现了良好的公众关系的举动，而这种措辞只能被说成是破坏公众关系的举动。这一事件完全扭曲了美国政府的本意--他们的第一反应是要表示对死者的惋惜。
假如布什总统后悔自己做出建立关塔那摩湾战俘营的决定，首先他肯定不会当众表示。不过，在周三白宫举行的记者招待会上，针对人们批评美国的理由，他沉默以对，你可以体会到他的挫败感。
民意测验显示美国民众支持关塔那摩湾战俘营的只有半数，尽管这个结论并不是你能从这儿的礼节性谈话中得出来的。不过，即使是那些平常支持看守所存在的人--就比如我的一个在伊拉克服役的朋友，他也希望关闭关塔那摩。
他估计大概百分之八十的军人都有同感。
“是因为你认为那里发生的一切是不人道的，并且还有损美国的海外形象？”我那天问他。
“也不尽然，”他回答，“只是我们不明白为什么美国人要为保卫自由世界承担那么多的责任……”
他停顿一下，“……而且还费力不讨好。”