Americans in Afghanistan:Specially forced out
驻留阿富汗的美军：被驱逐出局
Feb 26th 2013, 12:03 by B.F. | KABUL
BY EXPELLING American special forces from an embattled province, Afghanistan’s government has thrown the NATO coalition into confusion. It has also turned attention to these elite but shadowy troops. Afghanistan’s national security council have given the forces two weeks to leave Wardak province, after accusing them of complicity in murders and disappearances.
阿富汗政府下令驱逐驻扎在一个四面楚歌之省的美国特种部队，北约联盟对此惶恐不安，阿富汗政府也将注意力转移到这些地下精英部队。自美军被指控在当地共谋实施谋杀和屠杀后，阿富汗国家安全委员会要求美军在两周内撤离瓦尔达克省。
The crimes were blamed directly on Afghan irregulars who had been recruited to work alongside the Americans, and Hamid Karzai’s government has made it clear that it holds America responsible. Residents of Wardak had long complained of the irregulars’ abuses, according to the statement from the president’s office. The government says it is taking action only after the coalition failed to do so itself.
这些罪行直接指向阿富汗的非常规士兵，阿富汗政府招募他们协助美国士兵实行任务的，哈米德•卡尔扎伊政府明确表示美国政府对此事负有责任。据阿总统发表的声明，瓦尔达克的居民一直以来抗议非常规军的暴行。阿富汗政府称，如果北约不能解决这一问题的话，将会采取行动。
The order was announced at a hastily convened press conference on February 24th and appears to have wrong-footed the coalition. Two days later the confusion persists. Officials in NATO’s headquarters in Kabul said it is unclear who stands accused of what. A joint commission of senior Afghan and NATO staff has been appointed to travel to Wardak, south-west of the capital, in order to clarify the situation. NATO officials said they didn’t want to dismiss the Afghan concerns, but they also stressed that a review had already confirmed that “no coalition forces have been involved in the alleged misconduct”.
这一命令于2月24日紧急召开的新闻发布会上下达的，北约联盟似乎对此慌了手脚。两天之后，北约还没有找到应对的方法。驻喀布尔的北约总部官员称，尚不清楚谁该受到什么样的指控。现已委派一支由阿富汗和北约高级官员组成的联合委员会前往首都西南面的瓦尔达克查明真相。北约官员说，他们不会对阿富汗人们的担忧置之不理，而且他们也强调，报告中已确认北约士兵没有涉嫌这些不端行为。
The manoeuvre against the special forces brings Mr Karzai into confrontation with a principal element in the coalition’s strategy. These forces are increasingly the only ones to play a lead role in combat with the Taliban; other units are being shifted into backseat roles, training and advising Afghan troops. Raids carried out by special-forces troops have been credited by both NATO and Afghan commanders with seriously weakening the Taliban’s control over territory. They are also being used to train the tens of thousands of civilians who are supposed to join the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a village-based defence force which has become a central plank in the effort to shore up security in rural areas. However many (or few) troops remain in Afghanistan after 2014, their commanders are expected to want plenty of special forces.
下令驱逐特种部队这一策略使卡扎布尔质疑北约联盟驻阿的主要目的。美军特种部队在对抗塔利班中有着与日俱增的唯一主导作用，其他的作战部队转而成为辅助作用，训练和指导阿富汗士兵。北约和阿富汗指挥官都认为特种部队实施的突袭行动大大的削弱了塔利班的领土控制力。他们也常常训练数以万计希望成为阿富汗当地警察（乡级防御部队）的平民百姓，该部队已成为加强农村地区安全的核心力量。然而2014年后，仍有很多（或者少数）美军驻留阿富汗，阿的指挥官希望大量特种部队在阿富汗驻留。
Yet both the special forces’ raids and the notion having militiamen recruited at the local level have always sat uneasily with Mr Karzai. It was only after much arm-twisting that he was persuaded to take up the ALP at all. In particular he has railed against the night raids, which are hugely unpopular among his Pushtun constituency. As the deadline for Mr Karzai’s government to assume responsibility for security draws near, he has become keener to exert Afghanistan’s sovereignty and to dictate what NATO can and cannot do in the provinces.
然而，卡尔扎布一直都不太接受特种部队的突袭行动和招募当地民兵的想法(注释1)。只有在经受外部施加的压力后，他才同意成立“阿富汗当地警察”小组。他特别谴责夜间突袭行动，支持他的普什图选区人们对夜袭非常的反感。当阿富汗政府承担安全责任的最后期限临近，卡尔扎布致力叫嚣行使阿富汗主权，规定北约在瓦尔达克能做和不能做什么。
What rankles the government about the allegations in Wardak is the notion that the Americans would be engaging unaccountable Afghan nationals to do their dirty work. In this he may glean the prospect of a future insult to the country’s sovereignty. Such proxy forces have long existed in Afghanistan and date from the earliest stages of the American war, when bags of dollars where handed to local strongmen to buy the loyalty and use of their militiamen. At the time, unsavoury behaviour was overlooked in return for hostility towards the Taliban. Such groups were sometimes forged into semi-formal paramilitary forces, to act as protection and added muscle. Both special-forces units and the Central Intelligence Agency have murky histories with this sort of local groups. The most notorious, the Kandahar Strike Force, as well as other groups active in Afghanistan’s south-east, were accused of murders. Locals felt they had been granted impunity because of their links with the Americans.
关于瓦尔达克的指控，阿富汗政府难以释怀的是：美军与道德败坏的阿富汗人一起做的卑鄙勾当。再这样下去，他将来也许会在国家主权上添加不光彩的一笔。这一代理部队长期驻军在阿富汗，可以追溯到美国战争初期，那时候用大量钱财收买和利用当地独裁者的民兵，当时对这一丑恶之举的审查使人们仇视塔利班。有时候，这种民兵组织会“伪装”成半正式的预备部队，进行防卫和增加作战能力。特种部队和中央情报局同这种当地部队有过不光彩的勾当。最臭名昭著的是，坎大哈突击队和活跃在阿富汗东南部的其他民兵组织被指控涉嫌谋杀。当地居民觉得，因为和美国的关系，他们已免受惩罚。
Who stands accused of the crimes in Wardak, and indeed even whether there are such American-backed groups there at all, are the questions central to the current confusion. “I genuinely don’t know who is operating there,” said one NATO official. The picture is further muddied because the main highway that runs through Wardak, the Kabul-to-Kandahar, is partly secured by another armed force of Afghans which is known to be working for private-security companies. And the NATO officials are quick to point out that the Taliban conjured similar allegations in the past, as propaganda. Whatever crimes were or weren’t committed in Wardak, Mr Karzai’s government blames the Americans for creating “parallel groups and structures” of Afghan forces outside the control of the government.
谁为瓦尔达克发生的罪行受指控和甚至是否存在美国幕后支持的民兵组织是关系当前混乱局势的问题。一位北约官员说，“我确实不知道这个地区是谁在执行任务。”这张图片十分模糊，这条穿越瓦尔达克，喀布尔至坎大哈的公路主干线有一部分是由另一支阿富汗武装部队防卫的，众所周知，这支部队是为私人保安公司效力的。北约官员迅速指出，以前塔利班提出相似的指控来虚张声势。不管瓦尔达克发生犯罪行为与否，卡尔扎布政府都会谴责美军在本国政府控制范围之外成立相似的阿富汗民兵组织和结构。
Local leaders from Wardak say they are adamant the abuses happened, but that they have little idea who the culprits are. “They are Afghans working with the Americans,” said Abdul Qadir Hotak, who lives in Wardak’s Jalrez district. “Sometimes they are wearing uniform and sometimes they are in local dress. They are not in the Afghan National Army though.”
瓦尔达克的当地领导人表示，他们坚信当地发生了暴行，但是关于谁是罪魁祸首却知之甚少。住在瓦尔达克Jalrez区的阿卜杜勒卡迪尔说，“他们是为美军跑腿的阿富汗人，他们有时候穿着制服，有时候身着便装。但是他们不是阿富汗国防军。”
All this comes at a time when America is labouring through lengthy negotiations with Mr Karzai over an agreement about the role and status of the American troops who linger past 2014. The announcement about the special forces in Wardak may not be unrelated. In earlier rounds of negotiation the NATO side have sometimes surprised observers by their willingness to hand authority back to Kabul; they have often backed down on points which had seemed non-negotiable only a couple of years ago. Mr Karzai may now be pressing them to make similar choices about the use of special forces.
此时恰逢美国与卡尔扎布就2014年后驻留阿富汗的美军所扮演的角色及地位的协议正进行漫长的谈判。撤离瓦尔达克美国特种部队的命令也许与之没有联系。在前几轮谈判中，北约心甘情愿将职权转移到喀布尔，这让观察员感到很意外，他们也常常在前几年看起来似乎无法进行谈判的观点上步步退让。卡尔扎布也许会就特种部队使用上促使他们做出相似的选择。
注释1：sit with 有两种意思： a: 帮助，照顾： b: [用于否定句和疑问句]为…所接受；对…产生影响