=====精彩回顾===
President Obama Recalls Mistakes of Iraq War
奥巴马回忆伊拉克战争错误
Jake: Mr. President, in your speech at American University yesterday,you called this the most important foreign policy debate that we’ve witnessed since the Iraq War.
总统先生,昨天在美国大学的演讲中,你称这是自伊拉克战争以来我们见证的最重要的外交政策辩论 。
Obama: Right.
对 。
Jake: I think if you talk to most Americans, and particularly our generation, they don’t necessarily feel that. I wonder why you think that is?
我认为,如果你跟大部分美国人谈一下,尤其是我们这一代人,他们不会这样认为 。为什么你会有这样的看法?
Obama: Well, I lived through the debate of the Iraq War. I wasn’t yet in the United States Senate. I was a state senator in Illinois.
我经历了伊拉克战争的辩论 。那时我还不在美国参议院 。当时我只是伊利诺伊州一名参议员 。
Archive clip: I don’t oppose war in all circumstances. What I do oppose is a dumb war.
我不反对任何情况下发动战争 。但是我反对盲目愚蠢的战争 。
Obama: At the time, there was a drumbeat that going into Iraq was the right thing to do.
那时,人们觉得进军伊拉克是正确的事情 。
George H W Bush: We will answer every danger and every enemy that threatens the American people.
我们会回应威胁美国民众的任何危险和敌人 。
Obama: A lot of people didn’t get engaged in that debate then either.
那时许多人没有参与辩论 。
It was only after the decision was made.
只是做出决策之后才参与讨论 。
It was only after the initial push into Baghdad descended into massive chaos that suddenly the country realized that we had made a big, strategic mistake.
只是最初进军巴格达引发大范围的混乱之后,整个国家才突然意识到我们犯了一个大的战略错误 。
And my point is that now is the time to have the debate, not after decisions are made.
我的观点是,现在是进行辩论的正确实际,而不是做出决策之后才进行辩论 。