美伊联盟？美国：想的美！

美国妥妥的双重标准，护犊子，间带给伊朗泼脏水。
用紫霞仙子的话说就是:
连逃跑都这么帅！
原创翻译，看在翻这么长不容易的份上，捧个场。

原文：不让我发连接...

Iran Is the Problem, Not the Solution

The United States is now exploring whether to cooperate with Iran in the fight against radical Sunni jihadists in Iraq. Such an alliance would be a grave mistake: It would alienate Sunnis throughout the region and confirm a prevalent conspiratorial view that the United States is bolstering the Shiites, a minority in the Arab world, against the majority Sunnis, playing an old imperial power game to control the region and its natural resources.

美国正在研究是否能和伊朗合作打击伊拉克境内的极端伊斯兰逊尼派圣战者。这个联盟将会是个重大的错误：这会疏远整个地区的逊尼派势力，顺带坐实一个颇为流行的阴谋论，那就是美国通过支持什叶派 -- 一个在阿拉伯世界中反对占多数的逊尼派的少数派，玩弄地区和资源控制的古老的帝国游戏。

Violent jihadi sectarianism is only part of the story in Iraq today. Iran, like President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus, is making the case that Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries of the Persian Gulf are the real problem -- the wellspring of terrorism in the region -- and that Iran is therefore the natural ally of the United States.

暴烈的教派圣战只是发生在伊拉克的故事的一部分。如同大马士革的阿萨德政权一样，伊朗正在试图证明沙特和海湾地区的其它逊尼派国家才是真正的问题所在 -- 这一地区的恐怖主义策源地 -- 因此伊朗是美国的天然盟友。

But this is only half-true. Iran has also nurtured Sunni jihadists when it was convenient to do so, and it has also spent years cultivating Shiite sectarianism. In its effort to dominate the region after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran fostered staunch Shiite chauvinists, first in Iraq and more recently in Syria. By doing this, Tehran gave up completely on an earlier ecumenical attempt to make Shiism acceptable to Sunnis under the banner of joint resistance against the "forces of global arrogance" -- that is, the United States, Israel, and the Arab monarchies of the Gulf.

但这只对了一半。伊朗在它方便的时候也曾支持过逊尼派极端组织，还曾花费数年培植过什叶派势力。美国入侵伊拉克后，为了努力控制这片地区，伊朗支持坚定的什叶派沙文主义者，开始是在伊拉克，最近是在叙利亚。通过这些，德黑兰完全放弃了早前使逊尼派接受什叶派组建联合教派，团结在联合抵抗“傲慢的全球霸权” -- 即美国，以色列和海湾阿拉伯君主国的旗帜下的努力。

Iran's policy began in Iraq, where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Tehran's protégé and anointed leader, led the country in a blindly sectarian and brutally authoritarian fashion, singling out Sunni rivals for persecution. Iran's anti-Sunnism was further revealed when it backed the Assad regime in Damascus. Here Tehran mobilized significant financial, ideological, and military resources, including Shiite paramilitary forces such as Hezbollah, to fight for Assad's survival while he wantonly continued to kill and brutalize Syria's Sunni population. The net effect is that Iran has alienated the Sunnis of the Arab world, some of whom now express support for the most extreme forms of Sunni radicalism.

伊朗的政策始自伊拉克，那里的总理马利基，被德黑兰保护和指定的领导者，把国家带入一种盲目的宗教主义和野蛮的独裁中，针对逊尼派对手实行迫害。当回到大马士革阿萨德政权，伊朗的反逊尼派主义更加昭然若揭。德黑兰动用了大量的经济，意识形态和军事资源，包括什叶派准军事力量，如真主党来为阿萨德的存亡而战，与此同时，阿萨德仍肆无忌惮地继续杀害和残酷对待叙利亚的逊尼派人士。结果是伊朗疏远了阿拉伯世界的逊尼派，他们中一些人现在支持激进逊尼主义中最极端派别。

Twitter is ablaze with Sunnis from across the Arab world praising the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) for "liberating Mosul" and defeating the "Safavids," a pejorative term for Shiites. Such sentiments are a manifestation of the exasperation Sunnis feel and should not be construed as genuine identification with jihadism. The Sunni mainstream realizes that the jihadists are as much a menace to them as the jihadists are to the rest of the world.

Twitter上到处都是阿拉伯世界的逊尼派对伊拉克和黎凡特国（ISIS）的赞美，称赞他们“解放摩苏尔”并击败“Safavids”，“Safavids”是对什叶派教徒的蔑称。这些情绪显示了逊尼派的愤怒，不应该被视为对圣战运动的真正认同。逊尼派主流意识到伊斯兰圣战者对他们的威胁与对世界上其它地方的威胁是一样的。

Having now lost the Sunnis, Iran needs the United States to help secure its gains in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. Washington shouldn't give Tehran what it wants. Several facts have been obscured in the dominant narrative about what is taking place in Iraq today, which doom any potential joint U.S.-Iranian "war on terror."

现在，失去了逊尼派，伊朗需要美国帮助保护它在伊拉克，叙利亚还有其它地方的取得的利益。华盛顿不应该让德黑兰心想事成。关于今天伊拉克所发生的一切，有几个事实在主流记述中被掩盖了，这会使美伊联合“反恐战争”的任何潜在可能破产。

First, the uprising in Iraq and Syria is not exclusively a jihadi effort but rather a general Sunni revolt against political disenfranchisement and persecution. The radical Sunni jihadists, who form a part of this uprising, are also equally brutal toward other Sunni Muslims who don't share their beliefs and politics -- ISIS aspires to conquer Riyadh as much as Baghdad. U.S.-Iranian cooperation in the fight against ISIS would consolidate all the Sunnis under the jihadi banner and would confirm the jihadi narrative that the "Crusaders" and the "Persian Zoroastrians" are conspiring to destroy Islam, a confirmation that would help boost recruitment to the jihadists' cause.

首先，发生在伊拉克和叙利亚的叛乱不单单是一系列圣战活动，更是逊尼派对被剥夺公民权和政治迫害的普遍反抗。叛军中的一部分激进逊尼派穆斯林对那些和他们没有共同信仰和政见的穆斯林也是同样的残忍野蛮。ISIS不仅渴望攻克巴格达，而且同样渴望征服利雅得。美伊合作打击ISIS会使所有逊尼派团结在圣战主义的旗帜下，并使圣战分子确信“十字军”和“索罗亚斯德的波斯”合谋消灭伊斯兰教，这会帮助伊斯兰圣战分子更加有理由扩充兵员。

Second, Iran and Syria can be expected to embrace these jihadists when it serves their short-term interests. Both countries have had dealings with radical Sunni jihadists in the past, as when the two countries set them loose to fight U.S. troops in Iraq. More recently, Assad emptied his prisons of jihadists and has focused his military offensive on more moderate brigades to encourage the radicalization of the Syrian opposition.

其次，为了短期利益，可以预料伊朗和叙利亚会拥抱这些圣战分子。这两个国家过去都曾和极端逊尼派圣战分子有过关系，如同当初这两个国家把他们释放去伊拉克和美军作战。最近，阿萨德释放了监狱中的圣战分子，并把他的军事攻势集中在更为温和的旅，以此刺激叙利亚反对派激进化。
（注：最后一句话没搞明白到底什么意思。什么是更为吻合的旅？为什么要刺激反对派更加激进？为什么进攻温和旅就能刺激反对派更激进？）

Finally, Iran and Iraq's army and Shiite militias don't need the help of the United States to fight this war, which is not only about defeating jihadists but also about keeping Sunnis disenfranchised. Helping the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces and Shiite militias do battle with Sunnis -- even if they are radical jihadists -- is not America's concern.

最后，伊朗和伊拉克军队和什叶派军事力量不需要美国的帮助来打这场战争，这场战争不仅是要战胜圣战分子，也是要继续剥夺逊尼派的权力。帮助伊斯兰革命卫队和什叶派民兵就等于是和逊尼派作战-即使他们是极端圣战分子-这不是美国的利益。

America's concern should be stopping ISIS from moving its forces south toward Saudi Arabia. ISIS's jihadi proto-state, which has been recruiting successfully in the kingdom, could attempt a push into northern Saudi Arabia from Iraq's Anbar province -- and from there, it is only a few hundred miles to the oil fields or to Riyadh. Such an attack would test the mettle of the Saudi armed forces.

美国的利益应该是阻止ISIS继续向南威胁沙特阿拉伯。ISIS的圣战分子的雏形国家，已经成功地从沙特进行了兵源招募，可能会尝试从伊拉克的安巴尔省突进到沙特北部地区--那里，离油田只有几百里的距离。一次这样的袭击将会检验沙特武装力量的能力。

ISIS's ideologues consider the Saudi royals to be apostates and enemies of God as much as the Shiites. The group's propaganda videos highlight Saudi recruits tearing up their Saudi passports and identity cards, an act meant to deny the political legitimacy of the kingdom as well as the boundaries of the territorial nation-state. And many of ISIS's recruits hail from Saudi tribes (Otaibah, Shammar, Harb, among others) whose tribesmen also form the core of Saudi Arabia's military units. This raises questions about the Saudi army's reliability in battle.
ISIS的理论家们认为沙特皇室信仰背叛者，和什叶派一样都是真主的敌人。这个组织的宣传视频突出了来自沙特的新兵撕毁了他们的沙特护照和身份证，这一举动意味否认沙特王国的政治合法性，也否认国家领土的边界。很多ISIS新兵是来自沙特部落，这些部落又构成沙特军事单位的核心。这引起对沙特军队忠诚度的质疑。

Securing the oil reserves of the Gulf is in America's national interest -- heeding Iran's siren call to secure its regional domination and sectarian clients is not. Tehran has been as complicit as the jihadists in the sectarian violence that has gripped the Middle East. An American alliance with Iran will be seen as a war against the Sunnis and will condemn the region to an imperial politics of a past era, when outside powers bolstered minorities at the expense of the rights and privileges of the majority -- a recipe for endless rage and strife.

保护海湾石油产区的安全是美国的国家利益--听从伊朗的蛊惑去保卫他的地区霸权和教派当事人不是美国利益。德黑兰曾和圣战分子在笼罩中东的教派冲突中串通一气。一个美伊联盟会被视为对逊尼派宣战，会使这一地区陷入过去时代的那种帝国政治斗争，当外部力量以牺牲多数派的权利和权益来支持少数派--这是一张通往无休止的愤怒和冲突的通行证。美国妥妥的双重标准，护犊子，间带给伊朗泼脏水。
用紫霞仙子的话说就是:
连逃跑都这么帅！
原创翻译，看在翻这么长不容易的份上，捧个场。

原文：不让我发连接...

Iran Is the Problem, Not the Solution

The United States is now exploring whether to cooperate with Iran in the fight against radical Sunni jihadists in Iraq. Such an alliance would be a grave mistake: It would alienate Sunnis throughout the region and confirm a prevalent conspiratorial view that the United States is bolstering the Shiites, a minority in the Arab world, against the majority Sunnis, playing an old imperial power game to control the region and its natural resources.

美国正在研究是否能和伊朗合作打击伊拉克境内的极端伊斯兰逊尼派圣战者。这个联盟将会是个重大的错误：这会疏远整个地区的逊尼派势力，顺带坐实一个颇为流行的阴谋论，那就是美国通过支持什叶派 -- 一个在阿拉伯世界中反对占多数的逊尼派的少数派，玩弄地区和资源控制的古老的帝国游戏。

Violent jihadi sectarianism is only part of the story in Iraq today. Iran, like President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus, is making the case that Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries of the Persian Gulf are the real problem -- the wellspring of terrorism in the region -- and that Iran is therefore the natural ally of the United States.

暴烈的教派圣战只是发生在伊拉克的故事的一部分。如同大马士革的阿萨德政权一样，伊朗正在试图证明沙特和海湾地区的其它逊尼派国家才是真正的问题所在 -- 这一地区的恐怖主义策源地 -- 因此伊朗是美国的天然盟友。

But this is only half-true. Iran has also nurtured Sunni jihadists when it was convenient to do so, and it has also spent years cultivating Shiite sectarianism. In its effort to dominate the region after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran fostered staunch Shiite chauvinists, first in Iraq and more recently in Syria. By doing this, Tehran gave up completely on an earlier ecumenical attempt to make Shiism acceptable to Sunnis under the banner of joint resistance against the "forces of global arrogance" -- that is, the United States, Israel, and the Arab monarchies of the Gulf.

但这只对了一半。伊朗在它方便的时候也曾支持过逊尼派极端组织，还曾花费数年培植过什叶派势力。美国入侵伊拉克后，为了努力控制这片地区，伊朗支持坚定的什叶派沙文主义者，开始是在伊拉克，最近是在叙利亚。通过这些，德黑兰完全放弃了早前使逊尼派接受什叶派组建联合教派，团结在联合抵抗“傲慢的全球霸权” -- 即美国，以色列和海湾阿拉伯君主国的旗帜下的努力。

Iran's policy began in Iraq, where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Tehran's protégé and anointed leader, led the country in a blindly sectarian and brutally authoritarian fashion, singling out Sunni rivals for persecution. Iran's anti-Sunnism was further revealed when it backed the Assad regime in Damascus. Here Tehran mobilized significant financial, ideological, and military resources, including Shiite paramilitary forces such as Hezbollah, to fight for Assad's survival while he wantonly continued to kill and brutalize Syria's Sunni population. The net effect is that Iran has alienated the Sunnis of the Arab world, some of whom now express support for the most extreme forms of Sunni radicalism.

伊朗的政策始自伊拉克，那里的总理马利基，被德黑兰保护和指定的领导者，把国家带入一种盲目的宗教主义和野蛮的独裁中，针对逊尼派对手实行迫害。当回到大马士革阿萨德政权，伊朗的反逊尼派主义更加昭然若揭。德黑兰动用了大量的经济，意识形态和军事资源，包括什叶派准军事力量，如真主党来为阿萨德的存亡而战，与此同时，阿萨德仍肆无忌惮地继续杀害和残酷对待叙利亚的逊尼派人士。结果是伊朗疏远了阿拉伯世界的逊尼派，他们中一些人现在支持激进逊尼主义中最极端派别。

Twitter is ablaze with Sunnis from across the Arab world praising the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) for "liberating Mosul" and defeating the "Safavids," a pejorative term for Shiites. Such sentiments are a manifestation of the exasperation Sunnis feel and should not be construed as genuine identification with jihadism. The Sunni mainstream realizes that the jihadists are as much a menace to them as the jihadists are to the rest of the world.

Twitter上到处都是阿拉伯世界的逊尼派对伊拉克和黎凡特国（ISIS）的赞美，称赞他们“解放摩苏尔”并击败“Safavids”，“Safavids”是对什叶派教徒的蔑称。这些情绪显示了逊尼派的愤怒，不应该被视为对圣战运动的真正认同。逊尼派主流意识到伊斯兰圣战者对他们的威胁与对世界上其它地方的威胁是一样的。

Having now lost the Sunnis, Iran needs the United States to help secure its gains in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. Washington shouldn't give Tehran what it wants. Several facts have been obscured in the dominant narrative about what is taking place in Iraq today, which doom any potential joint U.S.-Iranian "war on terror."

现在，失去了逊尼派，伊朗需要美国帮助保护它在伊拉克，叙利亚还有其它地方的取得的利益。华盛顿不应该让德黑兰心想事成。关于今天伊拉克所发生的一切，有几个事实在主流记述中被掩盖了，这会使美伊联合“反恐战争”的任何潜在可能破产。

First, the uprising in Iraq and Syria is not exclusively a jihadi effort but rather a general Sunni revolt against political disenfranchisement and persecution. The radical Sunni jihadists, who form a part of this uprising, are also equally brutal toward other Sunni Muslims who don't share their beliefs and politics -- ISIS aspires to conquer Riyadh as much as Baghdad. U.S.-Iranian cooperation in the fight against ISIS would consolidate all the Sunnis under the jihadi banner and would confirm the jihadi narrative that the "Crusaders" and the "Persian Zoroastrians" are conspiring to destroy Islam, a confirmation that would help boost recruitment to the jihadists' cause.

首先，发生在伊拉克和叙利亚的叛乱不单单是一系列圣战活动，更是逊尼派对被剥夺公民权和政治迫害的普遍反抗。叛军中的一部分激进逊尼派穆斯林对那些和他们没有共同信仰和政见的穆斯林也是同样的残忍野蛮。ISIS不仅渴望攻克巴格达，而且同样渴望征服利雅得。美伊合作打击ISIS会使所有逊尼派团结在圣战主义的旗帜下，并使圣战分子确信“十字军”和“索罗亚斯德的波斯”合谋消灭伊斯兰教，这会帮助伊斯兰圣战分子更加有理由扩充兵员。

Second, Iran and Syria can be expected to embrace these jihadists when it serves their short-term interests. Both countries have had dealings with radical Sunni jihadists in the past, as when the two countries set them loose to fight U.S. troops in Iraq. More recently, Assad emptied his prisons of jihadists and has focused his military offensive on more moderate brigades to encourage the radicalization of the Syrian opposition.

其次，为了短期利益，可以预料伊朗和叙利亚会拥抱这些圣战分子。这两个国家过去都曾和极端逊尼派圣战分子有过关系，如同当初这两个国家把他们释放去伊拉克和美军作战。最近，阿萨德释放了监狱中的圣战分子，并把他的军事攻势集中在更为温和的旅，以此刺激叙利亚反对派激进化。
（注：最后一句话没搞明白到底什么意思。什么是更为吻合的旅？为什么要刺激反对派更加激进？为什么进攻温和旅就能刺激反对派更激进？）

Finally, Iran and Iraq's army and Shiite militias don't need the help of the United States to fight this war, which is not only about defeating jihadists but also about keeping Sunnis disenfranchised. Helping the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces and Shiite militias do battle with Sunnis -- even if they are radical jihadists -- is not America's concern.

最后，伊朗和伊拉克军队和什叶派军事力量不需要美国的帮助来打这场战争，这场战争不仅是要战胜圣战分子，也是要继续剥夺逊尼派的权力。帮助伊斯兰革命卫队和什叶派民兵就等于是和逊尼派作战-即使他们是极端圣战分子-这不是美国的利益。

America's concern should be stopping ISIS from moving its forces south toward Saudi Arabia. ISIS's jihadi proto-state, which has been recruiting successfully in the kingdom, could attempt a push into northern Saudi Arabia from Iraq's Anbar province -- and from there, it is only a few hundred miles to the oil fields or to Riyadh. Such an attack would test the mettle of the Saudi armed forces.

美国的利益应该是阻止ISIS继续向南威胁沙特阿拉伯。ISIS的圣战分子的雏形国家，已经成功地从沙特进行了兵源招募，可能会尝试从伊拉克的安巴尔省突进到沙特北部地区--那里，离油田只有几百里的距离。一次这样的袭击将会检验沙特武装力量的能力。

ISIS's ideologues consider the Saudi royals to be apostates and enemies of God as much as the Shiites. The group's propaganda videos highlight Saudi recruits tearing up their Saudi passports and identity cards, an act meant to deny the political legitimacy of the kingdom as well as the boundaries of the territorial nation-state. And many of ISIS's recruits hail from Saudi tribes (Otaibah, Shammar, Harb, among others) whose tribesmen also form the core of Saudi Arabia's military units. This raises questions about the Saudi army's reliability in battle.
ISIS的理论家们认为沙特皇室信仰背叛者，和什叶派一样都是真主的敌人。这个组织的宣传视频突出了来自沙特的新兵撕毁了他们的沙特护照和身份证，这一举动意味否认沙特王国的政治合法性，也否认国家领土的边界。很多ISIS新兵是来自沙特部落，这些部落又构成沙特军事单位的核心。这引起对沙特军队忠诚度的质疑。

Securing the oil reserves of the Gulf is in America's national interest -- heeding Iran's siren call to secure its regional domination and sectarian clients is not. Tehran has been as complicit as the jihadists in the sectarian violence that has gripped the Middle East. An American alliance with Iran will be seen as a war against the Sunnis and will condemn the region to an imperial politics of a past era, when outside powers bolstered minorities at the expense of the rights and privileges of the majority -- a recipe for endless rage and strife.

保护海湾石油产区的安全是美国的国家利益--听从伊朗的蛊惑去保卫他的地区霸权和教派当事人不是美国利益。德黑兰曾和圣战分子在笼罩中东的教派冲突中串通一气。一个美伊联盟会被视为对逊尼派宣战，会使这一地区陷入过去时代的那种帝国政治斗争，当外部力量以牺牲多数派的权利和权益来支持少数派--这是一张通往无休止的愤怒和冲突的通行证。