風起雲涌亂戰之地 時勢造就ISIS的崛起

For those whose knowledge of the Islamic State is limited to televised beheadings, “The Rise of ISIS,” on PBS’s “Frontline” on Tuesday, is required viewing.

那些對伊斯蘭國的瞭解僅限於電視上斬首畫面的人，一定要看看週二PBS頻道“前線”(Fronline)欄目的《ISIS的崛起》(The Rise of ISIS)。

Reported by Martin Smith, the hourlong program takes the story of this brutal, ever-growing militant group back to the final departure of American troops from Iraq in 2011. It’s a dense, fast-moving narrative focused on the failure of the Shiite-led Iraqi government to share power with the Sunni minority and the inaction of the United States while Sunni militants exploited the situation for their own gain. Blame is placed, quite directly, on the former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and on President Obama.

這個時長一小時的節目由馬丁·史密斯(Martin Smith)報道，他從2011年美國終於從伊拉克撤軍開始，講述這個不斷壯大的殘暴軍事組織的故事。這個片子情節緊湊，快速推進，重點講述什葉派領導的伊拉克政府未能與遜尼派少數族羣共享政權，以及在遜尼派激進分子利用局勢謀取自身利益時美國的遲鈍。該片直接對伊拉克前總理努裏·卡邁勒·馬利基(Nuri Kamal al-Maliki)總理和奧巴馬總統進行了指責。

You have to trust, to some extent, the way in which Mr. Smith and his producing team have shaped their account, because they don’t make much room for dissenting voices. Mr. Maliki does not appear, though several of the prominent Sunni politicians he sidelined do. Among the reporters, analysts and American officials who are interviewed — including two former ambassadors to Iraq; the former Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta; and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — only one, Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, speaks in full defense of the Obama administration’s policies.

從某種程度上講，你不得不信任史密斯和他的製作團隊的講述方式，因爲他們沒有留出太多可供爭議空間。馬利基沒有在節目中出現，但受其冷落的幾位著名的遜尼派政客出現了。在接受採訪的記者、分析家和美國官員中，包括兩位前駐伊拉克大使、前國防部長利昂·E·帕內塔(Leon E. Panetta)和參謀長聯席會議主席馬丁·E·鄧普西上將(Martin E. Dempsey)等。只有一位受訪者完全支持奧巴馬政府的政策，那就是副國家安全顧問本·羅茲(Ben Rhodes)。

Just about everything in “The Rise of ISIS” is already a matter of public record, though — the Islamic State had been thoroughly reported on by publications before it burst into the public consciousness. The program’s value is as a primer, intelligently and compellingly elucidating the Shiite-Sunni divide and telling the story of Iraq, primarily, and Syria since the American military’s exit.

《ISIS的崛起》中的內容幾乎都是公共記錄，很多媒體在伊斯蘭國突然引起公衆注意之前已經對其做過充分報道。這個節目的價值在於，作爲基本介紹，它聰明而引人入勝地闡述了什葉派和遜尼派的分歧，講述了美軍撤出後伊拉克（主要是伊拉克）和敘利亞的情況。

The interviews are surrounded by a flood of imagery that will have a mesmerizing or numbing effect, depending on your disposition — a steady montage of protests, bombings, battle footage and very disturbing militant videos of serial executions. (The beheadings of Western captives are not shown.)

除了採訪，其他部分的蒙太奇畫面讓你着迷或者讓你麻木（這取決於你的傾向）——抗議、轟炸、戰鬥畫面，以及非常令人不安的、激進的系列處決視頻（沒有播放西方俘虜的斬首畫面）。

Mr. Smith, working a few weeks or months behind events, can refer only glancingly to the current siege of Kobani, Syria. He ends with a grim suggestion that Baghdad will be next and with the question of whether American troops will eventually need to return to the region. Mr. Rhodes fields that one in his best bureaucratese: “The president is very confident and comfortable with a limiting principle as it relates to combat forces on the ground.”

史密斯的敘述近涵蓋了這些事件所發生的那幾周或幾個月的時間，僅粗略提及目前ISIS對敘利亞科巴尼(Kobani)的圍攻。在節目尾聲，他冷酷地暗示巴格達將是下一個圍攻目標，並且還提出一個問題——美軍是否最終需要回到該區域。羅茲用他最擅長的官腔回答說：“總統對地面作戰部隊採取剋制原則很有信心，也很放心。”