2周年911真相未解明911死者の数倍民間人アフガン・イラクで殺害に狷介孤高の憤激

http://www.counterpunch.com/krieger08232003.html
August 23, 2003

So Many Deaths, So Few Answers
数え切れない死者に対して、あまりにも少ない答え

The Second Anniversary of 9/11
911事件の2周年記念日

By DAVID KRIEGER

As we approach the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it is important to take a hard look at the direction our country has taken since these tragic events occurred.

わが国が取ってきた進路に対して厳しい目を向けることが重要である。

The United States has attacked Afghanistan and driven the Taliban regime from power. In the process, we killed some 3,000 to 5,000 civilians, more than died at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The US has not been able to locate and capture Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Reports from Afghanistan are that the US-backed regime there controls little more than the city of Kabul, and warlords are in control of the rest of the country.

アフガニスタンを攻撃して、世界貿易センターの死者よりも多い3,000から5,000の民間人を殺した。
主犯容疑のビン・ラディンの所在は不明で逮捕できていない。

The United States has also attacked Iraq, but with neither evidence of a link between Iraq and the 9/1l terrorists, nor with the sanction of the United Nations. The US preventive war against Iraq killed some 6,000 to 8,000 civilians, about twice as many as died at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Since this war, it has come to light that in making its case for war, the Bush administration used false intelligence to inflate its claim that Iraq posed an imminent threat of using weapons of mass destruction against the United States.

イラクを攻撃したが、911との関係も、国連の制裁との関係も定かでない。911の倍の6,000 から8,000の民間人を殺した。攻撃の口実の大量破壊兵器疑惑も嘘だった。

The US has not been able to locate and capture Saddam Hussein or the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. Nor have any of the purported weapons of mass destruction, which supposedly made the Iraqi threat so imminent, been found. There is a strong sense that the Iraqi people are opposed to US occupation of their country, and American soldiers are being killed on an almost daily basis. Most recently, saboteurs have also been attacking the Iraqi oil pipelines.

イラク人がアメリカの占領に反対し、米兵が毎日殺されていることは、強烈な問題となっている。パイプラインも破壊されている。

In addition to the price in American and Iraqi lives, the occupation of Iraq is costing US taxpayers nearly $4 billion each month, adding to the over $450 billion projected deficit in the US budget this year. There is no clear plan for US withdrawal from Iraq, and the administration will not predict how long American troops are likely to remain or how much the occupation is likely to cost in total. US corporations, with links to the Bush administration, are being given lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and manage its oil production.

アメリカ人にとってもイラク人にとっても、占領の負担は大きい。米軍の撤退もしくは占領継続の計画は不明確である。

We still have no authoritative public report on the intelligence failures that led to 9/11. No one has been dismissed and no blame has been laid at the feet of the intelligence community. The impression from the Bush administration is that the lead up to 9/11 was just too difficult for the intelligence community to handle, due to the paucity of communication within and between agencies and the need to actually connect some dots. The families of the 9/11 victims, along with the rest of the American people, are still waiting for clearer and more complete answers to why our intelligence failed so dramatically.

　あれだけの劇的な事件、911の「事前察知に関する情報機関の失敗」についても、公式の権威ある報告はない。

In a Congressional study related to intelligence failures, much of the important information has been kept from the American people by the Bush administration, including 28 pages on the role of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi leadership and members of Congress have pleaded that this information be released to the American people, but to no avail. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated, "My judgment is 95 percent of that information could be declassified, become uncensored so the American people would know."

すべてが闇に包まれている。

Since the war in Afghanistan, the United States has held prisoners, including US citizens, in a manner that defies the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners. The administration, aided by the Congress, has instituted the USA Patriot Act, which restricts the civil liberties of all Americans. The administration has put forward further legislation that provides even more drastic restrictions on our liberties.

逮捕者も多数である。愛国法など、市民の私的権利の抑圧も進んでいる。

The trends do not bode well for America. In two years, the country has engaged in two wars, at least one of which was clearly illegal under international law. The administration has engaged in a clear pattern of deception. Our wars have killed at least three times the number of innocent civilians as died in the 9/11 attacks. The individual thought to be principally responsible for 9/11 remains at liberty, while the liberties of Americans have been restricted. The goodwill with which America was held throughout the world in the aftermath of 9/11 has been squandered. We are viewed by much of the international community as bullies who use military force in defiance of international law and make our own rules when it suits us.

アメリカの戦争は違法である。

Our soldiers continue to pay the ultimate price for the arrogance of this administration. Mr. Bush, in the safety of the White House, challenged the militants attacking American troops in Iraq with the rash and taunting remark, "Bring 'em on." This remark drew many negative responses from the troops stationed in Iraq and their families.

ブッシュ政権の傲慢の付けを米兵とその家族が払わされている。

Two years after 9/11 Americans do not appear to be safer from terrorist attacks than they were before 9/11. We have a new bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security, and a system of color-coded warnings, but these do not seem to be effective barriers to terrorist threats. There is no reason to believe that terrorists hate America because they envy our way of life, as Mr. Bush says, and every reason to believe that terrorists oppose our political and economic policies, particularly in the Middle East.

To end the threat of terrorism, the United States needs a return to decency and the values that make this country strong. We need to reconsider the morality, legality and consequences of our policies. This would require a major reversal of the Bush administration policies that have cynically used 9/11 in seeking to achieve its ideological goals of global military dominance, control of oil, and financial gain for an elite few. On the positive side of the ledger, there are increasing signs that Congress, the media and the American people are awakening to the dangers of these policies and vocally and actively opposing them. It is none too soon to reassess and reverse the path we have taken since 9/11.

911以後のアメリカの進路を逆に向けるべきである。

David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He is the editor of Hope in a Dark Time (Capra Press, 2003), and author of Choose Hope, Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age (Middleway Press, 2002).

筆者は、『暗闇の時代の希望』の著者である。

He can be contacted at: dkrieger@napf.org.