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The missiles that comprise the land component of America’s nuclear triad are scattered across thousands of square miles of prairie and farmland, mainly in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. [qh]
构成美国核三角陆地部分的这些导弹散布在数千平方英里的牧场、农田上，主要分布在北达科他州、蒙大拿州和怀俄明州。[qh]
About 150 of the roughly 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles currently on alert are dispersed in a wide circle around Minot Air Force Base, in the upper reaches of North Dakota.[qh]
在目前处于戒备状态的400枚民兵3洲际弹道导弹中，约有150枚分散在北达科他州上游的米诺特空军基地周围。[qh]
From Minot, it would take an ICBM about 25 minutes to reach Moscow. [qh]
一枚洲际弹道导弹从米诺特发出，只需花25分钟左右就能到达莫斯科。[qh]
These nuclear weapons are under the control of the 91st Missile Wing of the Air Force Global Strike Command, and it was to the 91st—the “Rough Riders”—that General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, paid a visit in March 2021.[qh]
这些核武器由空军全球打击司令部第91导弹联队控制，美国参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军于2021年3月访问了第91导弹联队--“莽骑兵”。[qh]
I accompanied him on the trip. [qh]
我陪同他去了这趟旅程。[qh]
A little more than two months had passed since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and America’s nuclear arsenal was on Milley’s mind. [qh]
距离1月6日国会大厦遇袭已经过去了两个多月，美国的核武库一直萦绕在米利的脑海里。[qh]
In normal times, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the principal military adviser to the president, is supposed to focus his attention on America’s national-security challenges, and on the readiness and lethality of its armed forces.[qh]
在正常情况下，美国参谋长联席会议主席，总统的主要军事顾问，应该把注意力集中在美国的国家安全挑战，以及美国武装部队的备战、杀伤力上。[qh]
But the first 16 months of Milley’s term, a period that ended when Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as president, were not normal, because Trump was exceptionally unfit to serve. [qh]
但米利任期的前16个月并不正常，这段时间以乔·拜登接替唐纳德·特朗普担任总统而告终，因为特朗普特别不适合任职。[qh]
“For more than 200 years, the assumption in this country was that we would have a stable person as president,” one of Milley’s mentors, the retired three-star general James Dubik, told me. [qh]
米利的一位导师、退役的三星上将詹姆斯·杜比克告诉我，“二百多年来，这个国家的假设是我们会有一个稳定的人担任总统。”[qh]
That this assumption did not hold true during the Trump administration presented a “unique challenge” for Milley, Dubik said.[qh]
杜比克表示，这一假设在特朗普政府期间并不成立，这对米利来说是一个“独特的挑战”。[qh]
Milley was careful to refrain from commenting publicly on Trump’s cognitive unfitness and moral derangement.[qh]
米利小心翼翼地避免公开评论特朗普的认知障碍和道德缺失。[qh]
In interviews, he would say that it is not the place of the nation’s flag officers to discuss the performance of the nation’s civilian leaders. [qh]
在接受采访时，他会说，国家将级军官不应讨论美国平民领袖的表现。[qh]
