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　　Charlemagne

　　查理曼大帝专栏

　　Europe in a foreign field

　　海外欧洲军

　　The Europeans’ ability to deploy force abroad isfalling, but Mali shows it is still needed

　　欧洲的海外驻军不断减少，但马里冲突表明其仍需对外调兵

　　When young men go to war resentment turns against those shirking danger. In Iraq theAmericans denounced the French as cheese-eating surrender monkeys. In the intervention inMali, French politicians are dismayed by the absence of allies, especially Europeans, in the fightagainst jihadists.

　　青年前赴沙场时，就无比憎恶逃兵。在伊拉克战争中，法国人被美国人贬为“投降派奶酪猴”(cheese-eatingsurrender monkeys, 译者注：讽刺法国人在战场上表现软弱)。而本次对抗伊斯兰圣战教徒的马里军事介入中，法国又因缺乏盟友(尤其在欧洲)而使其政府官员深感失望。

　　The French conservative opposition leader, Jean-Francois Cope, was among thosecomplaining that “for now, our country is alone at the front.” Plantu, cartoonist for Le Monde,had President Francois Hollande as Tintin riding into battle, with the European union   depicted asthe comically inept policemen, Dupond et Dupont (Thomson and Thompson in the Englishversion), calling from their couch: “We are all with you!”

　　在这些官员中有法国右翼反对党党首让·弗朗斯·库佩(Jean-Francois Cope)，他们一起抗议道：“现在只有我国孤军上前线。”任职于法国《世界报》的漫画家伯朗都则将其画入漫画。画中的法国总统弗朗索瓦·奥朗德(Francois Hollande)成了漫画人物丁丁(Tintin)，并坐车前赴战场，而欧盟则成了成了搞笑的菜鸟警察杜邦与杜帮(Dupond et Dupont，英文版中为“汤姆森与汤普森”(Thomson and Thompson))，两人坐在板凳上上喊道：“你不会一个人的!”

　　Such criticism is harsh. The British, the Belgians, Danes, Italians, Germans and Canadiansoffered airlift support; the Americans are thinking of offering intelligence and air-to-airrefuelling. French officials, who usually deride Cathy Ashton, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, arepleased she called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers on January 17th, and is ready tospeed the deployment of a planned military training mission to Mali.

　　该批评略显苛刻。本次马里冲突中，英国、比利时、丹麦、意大利、德国和加拿大五国都向法军提供了空运援助;而美国则考虑提供情报共享与空中加油。本月17日欧盟外长(EU’s foreign-policy chief)凯瑟琳·阿什顿(Cathy Ashton)召开紧急外长会议，准备向马里政府军提供军事训练团。这让向来爱对其冷嘲热讽的法国官员十分满意。

　　Yet the reality is that only the French are putting their troops in harm’s way to push back themilitants. African forces that were meant to lead the reconquest of northern Mali in the autumnare being sent pell-mell, but many worry about their abilities. Nobody in Europe or Americadisputes the danger posed by the emergence in the Sahel of a Taliban-style haven. For onesenior (non-French) security source, the region has become “al-Qaeda’s fastest-growingfranchise”.

　　但事实上，派兵歼敌而深入险境的只有法军。马里政府正仓促部署非洲军，意欲于今秋收复马里北部，但该军队实力令人堪忧。而本次冲突发生于塔利班(Taliban)成员栖息的萨赫勒地区，这是欧美双方未曾涉及之地。根据某高级安全情报(来自法国以外)，该地区已成为“基地组织发展最快的根据地”。