昨日の追記になりますがテストだってうまく使えば役立つというのは全くその通りだと思いますが、苦言を呈したくなるのは教材や問題集から一歩も出ない態度です。それを何年も続けて、周りの学習者に「新聞読まなくても英検1級受かるよ〜」なんてアドバイスするならそんな人物は害でしかないでしょう。Facebookのスキャンダルで自分に都合のよい情報しかを得ないことがどのような結果に繋がるか、を再確認した今ではあまりにも能天気な態度だと思います。
シリアへの軍事攻撃を共同実施したアメリカ。流石にトランプ大統領もコーミーの回顧録が出るからだと言うわけでもなく理由を説明しています。ただ後に紹介するメイ英首相と比べると随分と大雑把な感じもします。またメイ首相は質問を受け付けていますが、トランプは質問を受け付けずにスピーチを一方的にして終わりです。スピーチもホワイトハウスの公式サイトにはまだ載せていませんし、こういった説明責任を果たすことに興味がないのか、という印象を受けてしまいます。
トランプの動画を見たくないし（苦笑）、マティス国防長官の方は質問に答えていますのでそちらの動画を載せました。
By THE NEW YORK TIMESAPRIL 13, 2018
相手に理解してもらって説得するスピーチはゆっくりですよね。1分間に120-130語のスピードのようです。
Words checked = [1019]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [84%]
スピーチは軍事攻撃したことをまず伝えてからTonight, I want to speak with you about why we have taken this action.と理由を述べています。
My fellow Americans. A short time ago, I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway. We thank them both.
Tonight, I want to speak with you about why we have taken this action.
One year ago, Assad launched a savage chemical weapons attack against his own innocent people. The United States responded with 58 missile strikes that destroyed 20 percent of the Syrian air force.
Last Saturday, the Assad regime again deployed chemical weapons to slaughter innocent civilians, this time in the town of Douma near the Syrian capital of Damascus. This massacre was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons used by that very terrible regime.
あくまで化学兵器を使用したからだと説明していますね。
Following the horrors of World War I a century ago, civilized nations joined together to ban chemical warfare. Chemical weapons are uniquely dangerous, not only because they inflict gruesome suffering, but because even small amounts can unleash widespread devastation.
The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons. Establishing this deterrent is a vital national security interest of the United States.
The combined American, British and French response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power: military, economic and diplomatic. We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents.
そのあとはロシアとイランを名指しで批判しています。
I also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting, equipping and financing the criminal Assad regime.
To Iran and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children? The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep.
No nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue states, brutal tyrants and murderous dictators. In 2013, President Putin and his government promised the world that they would guarantee the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons. Assad’s recent attack and today’s response are the direct result of Russia’s failure to keep that promise.
Russia must decide if it will continue down this dark path or if it will join with civilized nations as a force for stability and peace. Hopefully, someday we’ll get along with Russia and maybe even Iran, but maybe not.
次のスピーチはメイ英首相です。なぜ軍事行動をとったのか、一つ一つ丁寧に説明していきます。このような論理展開を丁寧に読むことは英語学習的にもとても役立つと思います。
こちらも1分間に130-140語のスピードとゆっくり話しています。
Words checked = [1398]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [87%]
The Prime Minister addressed the press with the following statement in Downing Street this morning.
Published 14 April 2018
メイ首相もトランプと同じで軍事攻撃をした事実を伝えた後にLet me set out why we have taken this action.とその理由を説明しています。
Last night British, French and American armed forces conducted co-ordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian Regime’s chemical weapons capability and deter their use.
（中略）
Let me set out why we have taken this action.
まずは化学兵器が使われたとされる引き金となった事件に触れます。
Last Saturday up to 75 people, including young children, were killed in a despicable and barbaric attack in Douma, with as many as 500 further casualties.
We have worked with our allies to establish what happened. And all the indications are that this was a chemical weapons attack.
トランプは断定的に語っていましたが、こちらはシリア政府が後釜であると判断した経緯も話しています。
We are also clear about who was responsible for this atrocity.
A significant body of information including intelligence indicates the Syrian Regime is responsible for this latest attack.
化学兵器は止めなくてはいけないとしても、すぐに軍事攻撃に移るわけではなく、外交努力をしましたと言います。
And based on the Regime’s persistent pattern of behaviour and the cumulative analysis of specific incidents we judge it highly likely both that the Syrian regime has continued to use chemical weapons since then, and will continue to do so.
This must be stopped.
We have sought to do so using every possible diplomatic channel.
ただロシアが拒否権を行使したので外交努力はこれ以上続けても成果を産まないと結論するしかなかったと語ります。
Just this week, the Russians vetoed a draft Resolution that would have established an independent investigation into this latest attack – even making the grotesque and absurd claim that it was “staged” by Britain.
So we have no choice but to conclude that diplomatic action on its own will not be any more effective in the future than it has been in the past.
さらに加えて軍事攻撃の正当性があることも確認したと主張します。
When the Cabinet met on Thursday we considered the advice of the Attorney General, the National Security Adviser and the Chief of the Defence Staff – and we were updated on the latest assessment and intelligence picture.
And based on this advice we agreed that it was both right and legal to take military action, together with our closest allies, to alleviate further humanitarian suffering by degrading the Syrian Regime’s Chemical Weapons capability and deterring their use.
泥沼になったイラク戦争がまだ記憶に新しいからか、この軍事攻撃は限定的で体制変革を求めるようなものではないとしています。
This was not about interfering in a civil war.
And it was not about regime change.
As I discussed with President Trump and President Macron, it was a limited, targeted and effective strike with clear boundaries that expressly sought to avoid escalation and did everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.
Together we have hit a specific and limited set of targets. They were a chemical weapons storage and production facility, a key chemical weapons research centre and a military bunker involved in chemical weapons attacks.
Hitting these targets with the force that we have deployed will significantly degrade the Syrian Regime’s ability to research, develop and deploy chemical weapons.
それにあくまで外交努力を続けることも付け加えています。
We must remain committed to resolving the conflict at large.
The best hope for the Syrian people remains a political solution.
We need all partners – especially the Regime and its backers – to enable humanitarian access to those in desperate need.
And the UK will continue to strive for both.
But these strikes are about deterring the barbaric use of chemical weapons in Syria and beyond.
And so to achieve this there must also be a wider diplomatic effort – including the full range of political and economic levers - to strengthen the global norms prohibiting the use of chemical weapons which have stood for nearly a century.
締めの部分では軍事行動は望ましいものではなくあくまで最終手段であったことを強調してます。化学兵器の使用は何としても阻止しなくてはいけないという今回の目的を再確認しています。
There is no graver decision for a Prime Minister than to commit our forces to combat – and this is the first time that I have had to do so.
As always, they have served our country with the greatest professionalism and bravery - and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
We would have preferred an alternative path.
But on this occasion there is none.
We cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalised – either within Syria, on the streets of the UK or elsewhere.
We must reinstate the global consensus that chemical weapons cannot be used.
This action is absolutely in Britain’s national interest.
