赖斯的演讲加翻译

As we work for a more just economic order, we must also work to promote a freer and more democratic world –a world that will one day include a democratic Cuba, a democratic Burma, and a fully democratic Middle East.

当我们要想建立一个公平的经济秩序，同时我们也必须得努力去营造一个更自由、更民主的世界，这个世界将包含一个民主的古巴、缅甸和完全民主的中东。Now, this emphasis on democracy in the Middle East is controversial, I admit, and some would say, “Well, we’ve actually made the situation worse.”

如今中东的民主已经变得有争议了，我承认这一点。因此可能就会有人说：好吧，我们让情况变得更糟了。

I would ask: Worse compared to what?

而我不禁想反问他们：比什么更糟了？

Worse than when the Syrian army occupied Lebanon for nearly 30 years? Worse than when the Palestinian people could not hold their leaders accountable, and watched as a chance for peace was squandered and evaporated into the second intifada?

比叙利亚军队侵占黎巴嫩将近30年更糟糕吗？能比巴勒斯坦人民再也不相信他们的政府且眼睁睁地看着和平的机会被浪费了并再次进入混乱更糟嘛？

Worse than the tyranny of Saddam Hussein at the heart of the Middle East, who terrified his neighbors and whose legacy is the bodies of 300,000 innocent people that he left in unmarked mass graves?

能比萨达姆侯赛因在中东的暴行，如恐吓其邻国，它的遗产是那无名坟冢中的三十万具无辜的尸体，能比这更糟糕么？

Or worse perhaps than the false stability which masked a freedom gap, spawned hopelessness, and fed hatreds so deep that 19 men found cause to fly airplanes into American cities on a fine September morning?

或者是这虚假的稳定掩饰了自由的鸿沟，给人们带来无望，同时带来的仇恨之深以至于19个人在一个美好的九月的早晨空袭了美国城市，能比这更糟嘛？

No, ladies and gentlemen, the past order in the Middle East is nothing to extol, but it does not make the challenges of the present less difficult. Even when you cherish democratic ideals, it is never easy to turn them into effective democratic institutions. This process will take decades, and it will be driven, as it should be, and as it only can be, by courageous leaders and citizens in the region.

没有，女士们先生们，中东过去的秩序并不值得赞扬，但其现今所面临的挑战也并不因此而减轻，把民主制度付诸行动也并不是一件容易的事。这一过程将需要数十年的时间，并且将由也只会由这个城市的勇敢的领导者们和市民们推进！Different nations will find ways to express democratic values that reflect their own cultures and their own ways of life. And yet the basics are universal and we know them – that men and women have the right to choose those who will govern them, to speak their minds, to worship freely, and to find protection from the arbitrary power of the state.

不通国家将会找到表达其民主观念的方式，且这将反映出他们国家自己的文化和其人民自己的生活方式。这些基本观念是众所周知的，那就是男性和女性都有权选择谁来统治他们、有权诉说自己的观点、有崇拜自由权和有权从国家的强权里寻求保护。

The main problem for democracy in the Middle East has not been that people are not ready for it. The problem is that there are violent forces of reaction that cannot be allowed to triumph.

中东主要的民主矛盾并不是人们还没准备好接受民主，而是过激的反应而导致人们不能取得最终的胜利。

The problem is that too many Lebanese journalists and parliamentarians are being assassinated in a campaign of intimidation, and that the Lebanese have not been permitted to elect their president freely.

问题是有太多的丽娜嫩记者和国会议员在恐怖行动中被刺杀了，这也就是为什么黎巴嫩未能选出其总统的原因。

The problem is that too many peaceful human rights activists, and journalists, and bloggers are sitting in prison for actions that should not be considered crimes in any country.

问题是存在有太多的人权激进分子、记者和博客进了监狱，而他们所做的在任何国家都不能构成罪名。

The problem is not that a group like Hamas won one free election; it is that the leaders of Hamas still refuse to make the fundamental choice that is required for any democracy to function: You can be a political party, or you can be a terrorist group, you cannot be both.

问题是没有能像哈马斯这样的团体一样能够赢得自由选举。哈马斯的领导者仍然拒绝做出能够使民主生效的决定：你可以成为一个政治团体，或者你也可以变成一个恐怖组织，二者不能兼得。

We should be under no illusions that the challenges in the Middle East will get any better if we approach them in a less principled fashion. In fact, the only