美国应抛弃新帝国主义

Triumphant in the first Gulf war, George H.W. Bush, in October 1991, went before the UN to declare that the US’s goal was now to build a “New World Order.

1991年10月，带着在第一次海湾战争中取胜的喜悦，老布什(George H.W. Bush)来到联合国(UN)，宣布美国现在的目标是建立“世界新秩序。

Rejecting this as Wilsonian utopianism, my 1992 presidential campaign called for an end to US military intervention where no vital interest was imperilled, for federal action to secure our southern border and for a halt to the outsourcing of US manufacturing jobs.

我反对这种主张，认为这是一种威尔逊乌托邦主义。因此1992年竞选总统时，我呼吁：在没有重大利益受到威胁的地方，停止军事干预；联邦政府采取行动保障南部边界安全；阻止美国制造业岗位流向海外。

We advocated a Hamiltonian policy to support industry and a Jeffersonian foreign policy of peaceful commerce with all nations but entangling alliances with none. And we were denounced as isolationists and protectionists.

我们的竞选团队主张实行汉密尔顿主义政策以支持工业，奉行杰弗逊主义外交政策——与所有国家建立和平商贸关系、但不与任何国家结盟。而我们被指责为孤立主义者和保护主义者。

We lost. But Mr Bush lost too, when Ross Perot, running on the same theme – putting America first – stripped away a third of the coalition Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan put together, leaving Mr Bush with an incumbent’s smallest share of the vote since William Howard Taft.

我们败选了。不过老布什也没有赢，因为同样主张“美国第一(America first)的罗斯·佩罗(Ross Perot)抢走了理查德·尼克松(Richard Nixon)与罗纳德·里根(Ronald Reagan)联盟三分之一的选票。最终，老布什成为继威廉·霍华德·塔夫脱(William Howard Taft)之后得票率最低的在任总统。

Mr Bush’s foreign policy record could not save him. The US was looking inward in 1992, as it does today. As Mitt Romney burnishes his foreign policy credentials this week, he should keep this lesson in mind.

老布什在外交政策方面取得的成绩无法拯救他。1992年的美国和今天一样，正在把目光转向国内。米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)在外交政策方面证明自己的同时，应记住这个教训。

Having learnt from his father’s defeat, George W. Bush offered a “more humble policy. But after September 11, he had a Damascene conversion, went nation-building in Afghanistan and Iraq, and declared the US’s goal was “to end tyranny in our world. Americans responded by relieving the Republican party of both houses of Congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2010.

小布什(George W. Bush)从父亲的失败中吸取了教训，提出的政策“更低调。但9/11事件后，小布什的政策出现了一次质的转变：他跑到阿富汗和伊拉克搞国家重建(nation-building)，并宣布美国的目标是“终结全世界的暴政。美国人对此的反应是，让共和党在2006年丢掉参众两院控制权，在2010年总统选举中败给民主党。

We cannot afford any more neo-imperial nonsense. With trillion-dollar deficits, a soaring national debt, and 10,000 baby boomers reaching eligibility for Social Security and Medicare every day, the US is beginning to break under the strain of its commitments.

我们再也承担不起新帝国主义的愚蠢行为。背负着数万亿美元的赤字和不断飙升的国家债务，加上达到领取社会和医疗保险年龄（他们都出生于婴儿潮时期）的人每天新增一万名，如今的美国已开始不堪重负。

What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul? A biblical hubris took hold of our republic. By pushing Nato into Russia’s front yard, planting bases in central Asia, dispatching democracy crusaders to subvert regimes in Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia, we undid the good work of Reagan and drove Moscow back into alliance with Beijing.

人就是赚得全世界，赔上自己的生命，有什么益处呢？圣经中所说的“骄傲(hubris)控制了我们的共和国。我们把北约(Nato)东扩到俄罗斯家门口，在中亚建立军事基地，派遣民主的“十字军去颠覆乌克兰、白俄罗斯和格鲁吉亚的政权，这一切让里根努力的成果付之东流，并迫使俄罗斯政府与中国政府结盟。

US influence in the Middle East is at a nadir. Our alliances with Turkey and Saudi Arabia are frayed. Pakistan bristles. Israel impatiently dismisses our pathetic pleas for it to stop building settlements. And as the Muslim Brotherhood rose when Hosni Mubarak fell in Cairo, so it looks likely to rise again when Bashar al-Assad falls in Damascus.

目前美国在中东的影响力已跌入谷底。我们与土耳其和沙特阿拉伯的同盟关系变得紧张。我们惹毛了巴基斯坦。以色列对我们要求它停止扩建定居点的可怜请求不屑一顾。随着胡斯尼·穆巴拉克(Hosni Mubarak)的倒台，穆斯林兄弟会(Muslim Brotherhood)在埃及兴起，因此，巴沙尔·阿萨德(Bashar al-Assad)倒台后，穆斯林兄弟会也可能在叙利亚复兴。

America needs a new foreign policy rooted in today’s reality, not in yesterday’s cold war or in tomorrow’s dream of global democracy. For as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminds us, in his region democracy is a bus you get off when it reaches your stop.

美国必须从今日的现实出发，制定新的外交政策，而不是抱着昨日的冷战思维不放，或沉浸在全球实现民主的明日梦中。这是因为，我们已经从土耳其总理雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安(Recep Tayyip Erdogan)身上注意到一个事实：在土耳其，民主是一辆公交车，到站了乘客就会下车。

We must roll up the empire and put America first again. We should swiftly complete Barack Obama’s work, end the war in Afghanistan and close US bases in central Asia. We should tell Ukraine and Georgia that Nato membership is closed. No US interest there justifies risking a clash with Russia. Let us tell Vladimir Putin that if he stays out of our yard, we will stay out of his.

我们必须稳扎稳打，重新奉行“美国第一的原则。我们应该迅速完成巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)未竟的事业，结束阿富汗战争，关闭美国在中亚的军事基地。我们应告诉乌克兰和格鲁吉亚，北约不再接纳新成员。美国在该地区的利益不值得其冒同俄罗斯发生冲突的风险。我们应告诉弗拉基米尔·普京(Vladimir Putin)，美国对俄罗斯将采取“人不犯我我不犯人的态度。

Half a century ago, Dwight Eisenhower told John F. Kennedy to start pulling troops out of Europe, or else the continent would end up permanently dependent on the US. Was Ike not right? Europeans should take full responsibility for their own defence. The near debacle in Libya, where Britain and France might have been fought to exhaustion by Muammer Gaddafi had not the US intervened, exposed the atrophied state of Nato’s European members.

50年前，德怀特·艾森豪威尔(Dwight Eisenhower)告诉约翰·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)，必须开始从欧洲撤军，否则欧洲将永远依赖美国。艾森豪威尔的话对吗？欧洲人应该完全承担起保卫自己的责任。英法在利比亚几乎溃不成军（如果不是美国出手，穆阿迈尔·卡扎菲(Muammer Gaddafi)或许会把英法军队打到精疲力竭），暴露出北约欧洲成员国的萎靡状态。

South Korea has a population twice that of North Korea and an economy 40 times as large. What are US soldiers still doing in the demilitarised zone? The frontier that will determine the fate of the US is not the 38th parallel, but the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

韩国人口比朝鲜多一倍，经济总量是朝鲜的40倍。美军还留在韩朝非军事区干什么？决定美国命运的边境不是三八线，而是美国与墨西哥之间2000英里的国界。

Elsewhere in Asia, it is Russia’s land that China covets but India’s that China holds. Vietnam and the Philippines are defying Beijing’s claims to the Spratly Islands. Japan is showing a resolve to hold the Senkaku Islands. Let the neighbours do the containment.

在亚洲其他地方，中国觊觎的是俄罗斯的地盘，但自己又占据着印度的地盘。越南和菲律宾正在挑战中国对南沙群岛(Spratly Islands)的主权要求。日本正在显示自己占领尖阁诸岛（Senkaku Islands，中国称“钓鱼岛及其附属岛屿）的决心。让这些邻居互相遏制去吧。

In the Islamic world, Victor Hugo’s dictum applies: stronger than all the armies of earth is the power of an idea whose time has come. Islamic fundamentalism and ethno-nationalism, the two forces tearing countries apart from central Africa to south Asia, are not problems that can be solved by Seal Team Six.

在伊斯兰世界，可以套用维克托·雨果(Victor Hugo)的格言：当一个观念的时机成熟时，全世界的军队都阻止不了它。从中非到南亚，在许多国家制造分裂的是两股势力——伊斯兰原教旨主义和种族国家主义，这不是能够靠美国海军海豹部队第六小队(Seal Team Six)解决的问题。

Let us cease our interventions and call a halt to our endless hectoring. How other nations rule themselves is not really the US’s business. If there is nation-building to be done, let it begin here. The watchword of the Romney campaign and presidency should be enlightened nationalism. Time, again, to put America first.

让我们停止干预，并发出呼吁：停止无休无止的威吓活动。别的政府如何治理自己的国家真的不关美国的事。如果需要国家重建，那么请从美国自己开始。罗姆尼竞选口号以及总统施政纲领应该是开明的民族主义。如今又到了重申“美国第一的时候。

The writer is a political commentator and a two-time candidate for the Republican nomination for president

本文作者是政治评论员，曾两次获得共和党总统候选人提名