I’m really interested in this question and I’m glad you asked about it.

我对这个问题很感兴趣 很高兴你问了

This is a question of how do Americans value life?

这个问题是美国人如何看待生命？

Is every life equally valuable to an American?

美国人觉得每条生命都有平等的价值吗？

I would argue it’s not, and there’s some evidence of that.

我觉得不是这样 有证据可以证明这一点

We know precisely how many Americans have been killed in uniform since 9/11.

我们精确地知道自9·11以来有多少美国军人牺牲

We know the number – there’s a website that will tell you tomorrow what the number is to the last man.

我们知道具体数字——有专门的网站会告诉你明天这个数字是多少 能具体到最后一个牺牲的人

But tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghans, Yemenis, Somalis have died,

但上万名 甚至几十万的伊拉克人 阿富汗人 也门人 索马里人已经死了

not always at our hands, often in internecine warfare, but we can hardly count.

不一定是死在我们手下 通常是在战火冲突中 根本数不清

And the American people hardly care exactly how many civilians died in the last drone strike or exactly how many Iraqis died in the course of the civil war.

美国人几乎不在乎在上一次的无人机袭击中有多少平民无辜惨死 也不在乎有多少伊拉克人在内战中死亡

It seems that the American people are completely disjointed from this war.

好像美国人压根儿就没有参与这次战争一样

If they take a moment to think on it, it’s just enough to wave a flag, stick a bumper sticker on their car with a yellow ribbon,

如果他们愿意花上一分钟思考一下 哪怕挥舞旗帜 在车尾贴上黄丝带 这就足够了

maybe stand for the pledge and clap for the latest service member on the field in the NFL.

捍卫誓言 并为美国国家橄榄球联盟中的最新服务成员鼓掌

Most Americans aren’t paying any attention to the military.

多数美国人根本不关注军人

And I’ll say I think one reason why this is, one part is race.

我觉得一方面是因为种族

There’s no denying it.

不可否认

This is very uncomfortable for people to deal with, but we fight brown people.

人们不愿意承认这一点 但我们确实喜欢跟棕种人起冲突

Usually we fight Arabs, we fight Pashto in Afghanistan and other ethnic groups.

通常情况下 我们会与阿拉伯人斗争 与阿富汗的普什图人和其他种族斗争

These people don’t necessarily look like the traditional American, and so their lives have less value.

这些人的长相不同于传统的美国人 所以他们的生命就比较廉价

How do we know this?

这一点从何得知？

When there was a terrorist attack in Belgium and, say, 20 people are killed, well those are Europeans; they kind of look like Americans.

当比利时发生恐怖袭击时 如果有20人被杀 他们都是欧洲人；长相跟美国人相似

It’s days of coverage.

媒体就会铺天盖地的报道好几天

Every single individual face is on the screen even if they’re not American citizens.

甚至连每名遇害者的脸都会出现在电视屏幕上 即便他们不是美国人

Every Caucasian face is accounted for when there’s a terrorist attack, and it’s the narrative or for days, which is hard to do in this news cycle.

发生恐怖袭击时 每名白种人的身份都会被查明 而且会被新闻报道好几天 这在新闻界本是件难事

But what about the next day, when 140 people are killed in Turkey in a terrorist attack, also perpetrated by ISIS, also perpetrated on innocent people?

但如果第二天土耳其发生恐怖袭击 140人遇难 策划者同样是ISIS 受害的同样是无辜百姓 情况会是什么样呢？

We will never see the faces of those Turks.

我们绝对看不到这些遇难的土耳其人的脸

We might not even get the exact number.

我们甚至连具体的遇难人数都不知道

They’ll say, “Approximately 140 people were killed in an attack,” and it’s going to be on the Chyron.

报道只会说“大约有140人在袭击中遇难” 就连这些字眼都只会出现在屏幕下方的滚动条里

And so I think we have to ask ourselves a question, which is:

所以我们必须要扪心自问：

if America is truly to be engaged around the world, as we are, with hundreds of military bases abroad—

如果美国真的想要参与到全世界中 就像我们现在这样 在国外建立数百个军事基地——

we’re the only people who do this by the way—if we are to be so engaged in the world

只有我们国家这么干了——如果我们想与世界紧密相连

then I can’t help but wonder if we ought to be more sensitive to the value of life

那我不得不想想 我们是不是应该更加珍视生命

in the regions of which we are either occupiers, invaders, or humanitarians, depending on your point of view.

更加重视那些我们要么是占有者 入侵者 要么是人道主义者的地区的人们的生命 我们的身份取决于你的立场

I’m not even going to necessarily weigh in on that, I think it’s a little bit of both or a little of all.

对此我不想多说 我觉得可能两者都有 也可能我们啥都是

But I think you bring up a great question, which is: American lives clearly matter,

但我觉得你这个问题提的很好 即：美国人的生命很金贵

but if we truly believe that all lives matter, we sure don’t act like it in the media space.

但如果我们真的相信所有生命都一样重要 那我们的媒体肯定就不会区别对待了

And that disturbs someone like me who grew to love Iraqis and Afghanis, especially Iraqis,

这让像我这样的人很困扰 我们生来就很喜欢伊拉克人和阿富汗人 尤其是伊拉克人

who were the first people that I really dealt with in uniform.

他们是我当兵后真正接触的第一批人

And I fell in love with these people.

我很喜欢他们

Because you know what most of them want to do?

你知道他们多数人都想做什么吗？

They want to wake up; they want to go to work; they want to take care of a family.

他们想一觉醒来 想去上班 想照顾家人

And they’re innocent.

他们都是无辜的

They’re as innocent and as valuable as we are as Americans, and we’re in their countries.

他们跟我们美国人一样的无辜和珍贵 是我们在他们的国家

We are guests, often uninvited guests, but we are guests.

我们是外来者 通常还是不速之客 但我们是外来者

And I think it’s really important to value life there.

重视那里的生命真的很重要

I don’t think we do enough of it at home—or abroad.

这一点我们在国内和国外做的都不够