One of Tacitus' most famous lines is that "they make a desert and call it peace." There is no better description of what the US has done in the Middle East over the years.
“他们指着废墟，却说那是和平”，塔西陀的名言用在美国这些年在中东地区的所作所为上，再恰当不过。
While the Russia-Ukraine conflict is capturing the world's attention, the Middle East, a less-noticed hotspot, is going through sustained turmoil. Israel is launching constant military attacks, Turkey crossed the border to attack the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in Iraq, and the conflict in Yemen is still on…While the Middle East has so many hot potatoes to deal with, the US, which seems to implement a so-called “strategic contraction" lately, is playing "ostrich" and turning a blind eye to what's going on there, as if that would make the world forget the fact that it – the self-claimed "shining city upon a hill" and "beacon of democracy" – is the biggest source of all the troubles in the region.
当前，俄乌冲突成为全球热点，但另一热点地区中东局势持续动荡。以色列频频发起军事打击行动，土耳其越境打击伊拉克库尔德工人党武装，也门冲突仍在延续……中东存在一系列未解待解的难题。而近期貌似“战略收缩”的美国开始奉行“鸵鸟”政策，对中东乱局装聋作哑。岂不知，自诩“山巅之城”“灯塔之国”的美国才是该地区最大的乱源。
From invading Iraq based on a small bottle of white powder to sponsoring "White Helmet" organizations to stage a show that "the Syrian government forces are using chemical weapons on civilians", from imposing "universal values" and "American-style democracy" to manipulating the media and public opinions, the US never hesitated to lie or use the most egregious excuses for the darkest purposes. It is indisputably the world’s biggest "empire of lies".
从凭一管白色粉末为“证据”入侵伊拉克，到资助 “白头盔”组织自导自演 “叙政府军对平民使用化学武器”；从“普世价值”和“美式民主”的推广，到操纵媒体引导舆论，美国最不惮去欺骗，用令人炫目的借口，达到最阴暗的目的，堪称世界上最大的“谎言帝国”。
Lies are told to serve its interests, which must be preserved through the war machine. From the Gulf War to the Afghan War to the Iraqi War, the US has gained its "clout" in the Middle East by stirring up and inflaming conflicts or even directly starting wars. A research by CODEPINK, an anti-war organization in the US, shows that America and its allies have dropped more than 40 bombs on daily average in Greater Middle East and North Africa since 2001. Although some countries in the Middle East rely on America's "security protection", in general the country has brought the region more chaos than governance. For the local people, the US, which has given them nothing but one war after another for its selfish interests and hegemony, is a plague they are desperate to get rid of but cannot.
谎言是为了利益做准备的，而维护利益的乃是战争机器。从海湾战争到阿富汗战争再到伊拉克战争，美国在大中东地区的“影响力”更多来自挑拨矛盾、煽风点火，甚至直接发动战争。美国反战组织“粉色代码”研究表明，美国及其盟友自2001年以来在大中东及北非地区“平均每天投弹40余枚”。虽然有部分中东国家依赖美国提供的“安全保障”，但总体而言，美国带给中东的不是大治而是大乱。对中东民众而言，出于一己之私和霸权图谋不断制造战乱的美国，是想送也难以送走的“瘟神”。
Sometimes Uncle Sam took actions in the name of "democracy", but its arbitrary export of the so-called "democracy" regardless of the complex tribal and religious relations in the Middle East has broken the fragile balance and aggravated the territorial, ethnic and religious conflicts there, nurturing a hotbed for extremist forces and pouring fuel on the region that’s already ravaged by turbulence and tribulation.
当然，美国有时也会打着“民主”的旗号行动。但其不顾中东地区错综复杂的部落和教派冲突，肆意输出所谓的“民主”，结果却是打破了原本脆弱的平衡，激化了中东固有的领土、民族、宗教等矛盾，培育了极端主义势力滋生的土壤，加重了这一地区的动荡和苦难。
Yet all its operations in the Middle East, whether they be the wars waged by the US or its promotion of the so-called democracy, ended up in sheer failure. Some American scholar pointed out that the past 30 years have seen America coming across a slew of moral, diplomatic and military failures, but it is the local people that are paying the price for Washington’s actions and failures.
无论是发动战争，还是推行所谓的“民主”，美国在中东的行动都遭到了显而易见的失败。美国有学者指出：“过去30多年，我们看到了美国一系列道德、外交和军事上的失败。”可为美国失败付出代价的却是地区民众。
The Iraq War left more than 200,000 civilians dead and about 2.5 million refugees, and America's air strikes in Syria caused masses of civilian casualties. According to a survey by United Nations World Food Programme in April 2020, about 1/3 of Syrians didn’t have enough food and 87% had no savings. The once affluent Libya is now left in ruins with the prospect of reconstruction far out of reach.
伊拉克战争中，超过20万平民死亡，约250万人沦为难民。在叙利亚，美国的空中打击造成大量平民死伤。根据世界粮食计划署2020年4月的调查，大约三分之一的叙利亚人没有足够的食物，87%的人没有储蓄。利比亚这个曾经富裕的国家变得满目疮痍，重建至今遥遥无期。
Even US President Biden himself admitted that "our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building", while Vice President Harris was more point-blank by saying "you know for years and generations wars have been fought over oil". A poll shows that 58% of respondents in Arab countries felt negative toward America’s diplomatic policy, and 81% thought it was the chief threat to the security of the Arab world.
其实，就连美国总统拜登自己也承认：“我们在阿富汗的任务从不是国家建设。”美国副总统哈里斯的话则更加直白：“要知道过去很多年，（美国）几代人都在为石油而战。”民意调查结果显示，阿拉伯国家58%的受访者对美国外交政策持否定态度，81%的受访者认为美国是对阿拉伯国家安全的主要威胁。
The US has clamored about "rules-based international order" like a catchphrase, but hundreds of thousands of civilians have died, millions have been injured and tens of millions have become homeless because of it – their blood and tears suffice to call out the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of "American-style democracy". The US is the biggest source of trouble for the Middle East, and the turmoil and instability it has caused will one day come back to burn and batter itself out of its dream of hegemony, bullying and domination.
美国常常鼓噪“基于规则的国际秩序”，但数十万死亡的平民、数百万伤者、数千万流离失所的难民的血泪，无疑昭示着“美式秩序”的破产。事实上，美国正是中东最大乱源，而其制造的动乱必将反噬自身，让其在头破血流后从霸权、霸凌、霸道的迷梦中惊醒。
