Central Asia
中亚
An opportunity missed
错失良机
Jul 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition
AHMED RASHID has enjoyed mixed fortunes. His first great adventure-heading off from Cambridge University in 1971 to join a guerrilla war in Baluchistan-did not end well. But in 1979 he was in Kabul when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and this was a stroke of luck. It gave him a grandstand view of subsequent developments, including the rise of the Taliban, with whom he lived and on whom he reported. Later he turned his inside knowledge into a bestseller on the movement. Since then this Pakistani journalist who lives in Lahore has been one of the world’s pre-eminent commentators on the rise of militant Islam in Central Asia, with exceptional first-hand sources.
阿曼德·拉希德的人生可谓有起有落。他人生的第一次大冒险（1971年，他离开剑桥大学，加入到俾路支斯坦的游击战），结局并不圆满。但1979年，苏联入侵阿富汗给他带来了好运。当时，他正在喀布尔，使得他亲历事态的发展。他同塔利班武装人员住在一起，进行追踪报道，亲眼目睹了塔利班的崛起。随后，他根据自己掌握的内情，写成了有关塔利班运动的畅销书。从此，这位居住在拉合尔市，掌握了非比寻常的第一手材料的巴基斯坦记者，成了有关中亚地区伊斯兰武装崛起问题的优秀评论员。
This background explains both the strengths and weaknesses of his latest book, which sets out to explain what he considers to have been America’s missed opportunity in Central Asia after its quick victory against the Taliban late in 2001. The people of the region greeted the superpower’s arrival with understandable trepidation. But at the same time, Mr Rashid argues, the Americans generated enormous expectations of change. A sustained commitment could have had a transformative impact not only on Afghanistan itself but also on the other post-Soviet “Stans” of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This opportunity, however, was squandered when George Bush decided instead to veer off into the sands of Iraq, a benighted enterprise which Mr Rashid says-perhaps too glibly-has left American power “shattered”, its army “broken”, its credibility “in ruins” and the world a more dangerous place.
这样的生活背景，正好能解释他的新书的优缺点。作者意在阐述，2001年末，美军在阿富汗迅速取得胜利后，美国错失的在中亚的机会。可以理解，美军的到来，引起了该地区的忧虑。但拉希德认为，美国人也让人们对变革充满了期待。如果美国能信守诺言，那么该地区就会发生革命性的变革，这不仅会影响到阿富汗，还能影响到从前苏联独立出来的”斯坦”国家–哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯斯坦、塔吉克斯坦、土库曼斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦。然而，布什决定转战伊拉克沙漠，结果大好机会就被这个愚蠢的计划白白浪费掉了。拉希德说(也许有点口没遮拦)，布什的计划导致美国地位动摇，军队溃败，信用崩溃，也令世界变得更加危险。
Mr Rashid’s unique selling point is that he is a details man. He guides the reader around the unlovely Afghan warlords, describes the quarrels inside Afghanistan’s new (and failing) government, dissects the illicit opium business, lays bare the malevolent machinations of Pakistan’s intelligence services and attempts to describe the struggle for power in the lawless tribal regions between the two countries. For anyone with an interest in this sorry but potentially world-altering tale his book contains invaluable information, packed as it is with facts, names, numbers, anecdote and a fair dose of gossip.
资料详细,是拉希德这本书的独特卖点。他引领读者领略到了可恶的阿富汗军阀头子的”风采”，描述了阿富汗新(无能的)政府内的争吵，剖析了鸦片非法交易，揭露了巴基斯坦情报组织的恶毒阴谋，并试着描绘了两国（阿富汗和巴基斯坦）边境上无法无天的部落间的权力斗争。本书中的故事充满着不幸，但却可能改变世界，而任何兴致盎然的读者都能发现此书含有无价的信息–真人真事、各种统计数据、各类奇闻轶事以及适量的闲言碎语。
Nonetheless, the book has a weakness. For all his contacts, Mr Rashid is neither an especially gifted storyteller nor the clearest of analysts, which means that in the end he lets the richness of his material overwhelm his narrative. That is no dishonour, given the breadth of the canvas, but in a way it is a missed opportunity of its own. He could have done with some sharper editing. In its absence, this book is needlessly hard work for the non-expert.
不过该书也有不足。对于接触过他的人来说，拉希德既不是一位很有天赋的作家，也算不上一位高明的分析家。他的叙述，最终被淹没在了丰富的素材里。由于这部作品相当宏大，这并不是丢脸的事，但从某种意义上来说，却错失了一个很好的机会。他本来可以编辑得更细心些。但现在，对于普通读者来说，晦涩难懂，而这都是可以避免的。
Book details：
Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
By Ahmed Rashid
译者：hddmail126 http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12929&extra=page%3D1