国务卿赖斯就职演讲

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。

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.