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Imagining what the world would look like today if the attacks had never happened.
How different would the world be today if there had been no 9/11? What if the attacks had been foiled or bungled?1 One obvious answer is that Americans would probably care a lot less than they do about the rest of the world.
编者注：1. foil：If you foil someone's plan or attempt to do something, for example to commit a crime, you succeed in stopping them from doing what they want；bungle：If you bungle something, you fail to do it properly, because you make mistakes or are clumsy.
Back on the eve of destruction,1 in early September 2001, only 13 percent of Americans believed that the U.S. should be “the single world leader.” And fewer than a third favored higher defense spending. Now those figures are naturally much higher. Right?
编者注：1. destruction：construction的反义词。
Wrong. According to the most recent surveys, just 12 percent of Americans today think the U.S. should be the sole superpower — almost exactly the same proportion as on the eve of the 9/11 attacks.1 The share of Americans who want to see higher spending on national security is actually down to 26 percent. Paradoxically,2 Americans today seem less interested in the wider world than they were before the Twin Towers were felled.
编者注：1. survey：If you carry out a survey, you try to find out detailed information about a lot of different people or things, usually by asking people a series of questions；sole：The sole thing or person of a particular type is the only one of that type；proportion：A proportion of a group or an amount is a part of it. (FORMAL)
2. paradoxically：If something is paradoxical, it involves two facts or qualities which seem to contradict each other，自相矛盾的，出乎意料的。
In the past 10 years, the U.S. has directly or indirectly overthrown1 at least three governments in the Muslim world. Yet Americans today feel less powerful than they did then. In 2001 just over a quarter felt that the U.S. had “a less important role as a world leader compared to 10 years ago.” The latest figure is 41 percent.
编者注：1. overthrow：When a government or leader is overthrown, they are removed from power by force.
Three explanations suggest themselves. First, wielding power abroad proved harder in practice than in neoconservative theory.1 Second, the financial crisis has dampened American spirits.2 A third possibility is that 9/11 simply didn’t have that big an impact3 on American opinion.
编者注：1. wield：If someone wields power, they have it and are able to use it；neoconservative：词根 ‘neo-’ 意为“新，新的”。
2. financial：形容词，联系大纲词汇finance；dampen：To dampen something such as someone's enthusiasm or excitement means to make it less lively or intense.
3. impact：The impact that something has on a situation, process, or person is a sudden and powerful effect that it has on them.
Yet to conclude that 9/11 didn’t change much is to misunderstand the historical process. The world is a seriously complex place, and a small change to the web of events can have huge consequences. Our difficulty is imagining what those consequences might have been.
So let’s play a game like the one my friends at the Muzzy Lane software company are currently designing, which has the working title “New World Disorder.” The game simulates the complex interaction of economics, politics, and international relations, allowing us to replay the past.1
编者注：1. simulate：If you simulate an action or a feeling, you pretend that you are doing it or feeling it；interaction： When one thing interacts with another or two things interact, the two things affect each other's behaviour or condition.
From left: Bernd Obermann / Corbis; Sean Adair / Reuters; Robert Glusic / Corbis
Let’s start in January 2001 and thwart the 9/11 attacks by having Condi Rice and Paul Wolfowitz heed Richard Clarke’s warnings about Al Qaeda.1 The game starts off well. Al-Qaeda is preemptively decapitated, its leaders rounded up in a series of covert operations and left to the tender mercies of their home governments.2 President Bush gets to focus on tax cuts, his first love.
编者注：1. thwart：If you thwart someone or thwart their plans, you prevent them from doing or getting what they want；heed：If you heed someone's advice or warning, you pay attention to it and do what they suggest. (FORMAL) AL Qaeda：基地组织。
2. preemptively：A pre-emptive attack or strike is intended to weaken or damage an enemy or opponent, for example by destroying their weapons before they can do any harm；decapitate：If someone is decapitated, their head is cut off. (FORMAL)covert：Covert activities or situations are secret or hidden. (FORMAL) tender：Someone or something that is tender expresses gentle and caring feelings.
But then, three years later, the murky1 details of this operation surface on the front page of The New York Times. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, denounces the “criminal conduct” of the Bush administration.2 Liberal pundits foam at the mouth.3 Ordinary Americans, unseared4 by 9/11, are shocked. Osama bin Laden issues a fierce denunciation5 of the U.S. from his Saudi prison cell. It triggers a wave of popular anger in the Middle East that topples any regime seen as too close to Washington.6
编者注：1. murky：If you describe something as murky, you mean that the details of it are not clear or that it is difficult to understand.
2. the Democratic candidate for the presidency：民主党总统候选人；denounce：If you denounce a person or an action, you criticize them severely and publicly because you feel strongly that they are wrong or evil，谴责。
3. pundit：与expert同义；foam at the mouth：to be uncontrollably angry.
4. unseared：sear，使憔悴，这里unseared表示对911事件不知情。
5. denunciation：第2条目中denounce的名词形式。
6. trigger：If something triggers an event or situation, it causes it to begin to happen or exist；topple：与overthrow同义；regime：If you refer to a government or system of running a country as a regime, you are critical of it because you think it is not democratic and uses unacceptable methods.
The government of Qatar — gone. The government of Kuwait — gone. Above all, the government of Saudi Arabia — gone. True to form, the experts are soon all over network TV explaining how this fundamentalist backlash against the U.S.-backed oil monarchies had been years in the making (even if they hadn’t quite gotten around to predicting it beforehand).1 “Who lost the Middle East?” demands Kerry, pointing an accusing finger at George W. Bush. (Remember, prior to 9/11 Bush favored a reduction of U.S. overseas commitments.) The Democrats win the 2004 election, where-upon bin Laden’s new Islamic Republic of Arabia takes hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh…2
编者注：1. true to form：as can be expected；this fundamentalist：指上文提到的本•拉登；backlash：A backlash against a tendency or recent development in society or politics, is a sudden, strong reaction against it；monarchy：A monarchy is a country that has a monarch. The monarch of a country is the king, queen, emperor, or empress. 君主国。
2. where-upon：于是；hostage：人质；Riyadh：沙特阿拉伯首都利雅得。
In other words, if things had happened differently 10 years ago — if there had been no 9/11 and no retaliatory invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq — we might be living through an Islamist Winter rather than an Arab Spring.
编者注：retaliatory：If you take retaliatory action, you try to harm or annoy someone who has harmed or annoyed you. (FORMAL)；invasion：If there is an invasion of a country, a foreign army enters it by force.
Arab Spring：西方媒体所称的“阿拉伯之春”，系指自2010年12月份突尼斯一些城镇爆发动乱以来，阿拉伯世界一些国家民众纷纷走上街头，要求推翻本国的专制政体的行动。
Replaying the history game without 9/11 suggests that, ironically, the real impact of the attacks was not on Americans but on the homelands of the attackers themselves. ♥
编者注：ironically：You use ironically to draw attention to a situation which is odd or amusing because it involves a contrast，具有讽刺意味地。
How different would the world be today if there had been no 9/11? What if the attacks had been foiled or bungled?1 One obvious answer is that Americans would probably care a lot less than they do about the rest of the world.
编者注：1. foil：If you foil someone's plan or attempt to do something, for example to commit a crime, you succeed in stopping them from doing what they want；bungle：If you bungle something, you fail to do it properly, because you make mistakes or are clumsy.
Back on the eve of destruction,1 in early September 2001, only 13 percent of Americans believed that the U.S. should be “the single world leader.” And fewer than a third favored higher defense spending. Now those figures are naturally much higher. Right?
编者注：1. destruction：construction的反义词。
Wrong. According to the most recent surveys, just 12 percent of Americans today think the U.S. should be the sole superpower — almost exactly the same proportion as on the eve of the 9/11 attacks.1 The share of Americans who want to see higher spending on national security is actually down to 26 percent. Paradoxically,2 Americans today seem less interested in the wider world than they were before the Twin Towers were felled.
编者注：1. survey：If you carry out a survey, you try to find out detailed information about a lot of different people or things, usually by asking people a series of questions；sole：The sole thing or person of a particular type is the only one of that type；proportion：A proportion of a group or an amount is a part of it. (FORMAL)
2. paradoxically：If something is paradoxical, it involves two facts or qualities which seem to contradict each other，自相矛盾的，出乎意料的。
In the past 10 years, the U.S. has directly or indirectly overthrown1 at least three governments in the Muslim world. Yet Americans today feel less powerful than they did then. In 2001 just over a quarter felt that the U.S. had “a less important role as a world leader compared to 10 years ago.” The latest figure is 41 percent.
编者注：1. overthrow：When a government or leader is overthrown, they are removed from power by force.
Three explanations suggest themselves. First, wielding power abroad proved harder in practice than in neoconservative theory.1 Second, the financial crisis has dampened American spirits.2 A third possibility is that 9/11 simply didn’t have that big an impact3 on American opinion.
编者注：1. wield：If someone wields power, they have it and are able to use it；neoconservative：词根 ‘neo-’ 意为“新，新的”。
2. financial：形容词，联系大纲词汇finance；dampen：To dampen something such as someone's enthusiasm or excitement means to make it less lively or intense.
3. impact：The impact that something has on a situation, process, or person is a sudden and powerful effect that it has on them.
Yet to conclude that 9/11 didn’t change much is to misunderstand the historical process. The world is a seriously complex place, and a small change to the web of events can have huge consequences. Our difficulty is imagining what those consequences might have been.
So let’s play a game like the one my friends at the Muzzy Lane software company are currently designing, which has the working title “New World Disorder.” The game simulates the complex interaction of economics, politics, and international relations, allowing us to replay the past.1
编者注：1. simulate：If you simulate an action or a feeling, you pretend that you are doing it or feeling it；interaction： When one thing interacts with another or two things interact, the two things affect each other's behaviour or condition.
From left: Bernd Obermann / Corbis; Sean Adair / Reuters; Robert Glusic / Corbis
Let’s start in January 2001 and thwart the 9/11 attacks by having Condi Rice and Paul Wolfowitz heed Richard Clarke’s warnings about Al Qaeda.1 The game starts off well. Al-Qaeda is preemptively decapitated, its leaders rounded up in a series of covert operations and left to the tender mercies of their home governments.2 President Bush gets to focus on tax cuts, his first love.
编者注：1. thwart：If you thwart someone or thwart their plans, you prevent them from doing or getting what they want；heed：If you heed someone's advice or warning, you pay attention to it and do what they suggest. (FORMAL) AL Qaeda：基地组织。
2. preemptively：A pre-emptive attack or strike is intended to weaken or damage an enemy or opponent, for example by destroying their weapons before they can do any harm；decapitate：If someone is decapitated, their head is cut off. (FORMAL)covert：Covert activities or situations are secret or hidden. (FORMAL) tender：Someone or something that is tender expresses gentle and caring feelings.
But then, three years later, the murky1 details of this operation surface on the front page of The New York Times. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, denounces the “criminal conduct” of the Bush administration.2 Liberal pundits foam at the mouth.3 Ordinary Americans, unseared4 by 9/11, are shocked. Osama bin Laden issues a fierce denunciation5 of the U.S. from his Saudi prison cell. It triggers a wave of popular anger in the Middle East that topples any regime seen as too close to Washington.6
编者注：1. murky：If you describe something as murky, you mean that the details of it are not clear or that it is difficult to understand.
2. the Democratic candidate for the presidency：民主党总统候选人；denounce：If you denounce a person or an action, you criticize them severely and publicly because you feel strongly that they are wrong or evil，谴责。
3. pundit：与expert同义；foam at the mouth：to be uncontrollably angry.
4. unseared：sear，使憔悴，这里unseared表示对911事件不知情。
5. denunciation：第2条目中denounce的名词形式。
6. trigger：If something triggers an event or situation, it causes it to begin to happen or exist；topple：与overthrow同义；regime：If you refer to a government or system of running a country as a regime, you are critical of it because you think it is not democratic and uses unacceptable methods.
The government of Qatar — gone. The government of Kuwait — gone. Above all, the government of Saudi Arabia — gone. True to form, the experts are soon all over network TV explaining how this fundamentalist backlash against the U.S.-backed oil monarchies had been years in the making (even if they hadn’t quite gotten around to predicting it beforehand).1 “Who lost the Middle East?” demands Kerry, pointing an accusing finger at George W. Bush. (Remember, prior to 9/11 Bush favored a reduction of U.S. overseas commitments.) The Democrats win the 2004 election, where-upon bin Laden’s new Islamic Republic of Arabia takes hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh…2
编者注：1. true to form：as can be expected；this fundamentalist：指上文提到的本•拉登；backlash：A backlash against a tendency or recent development in society or politics, is a sudden, strong reaction against it；monarchy：A monarchy is a country that has a monarch. The monarch of a country is the king, queen, emperor, or empress. 君主国。
2. where-upon：于是；hostage：人质；Riyadh：沙特阿拉伯首都利雅得。
In other words, if things had happened differently 10 years ago — if there had been no 9/11 and no retaliatory invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq — we might be living through an Islamist Winter rather than an Arab Spring.
编者注：retaliatory：If you take retaliatory action, you try to harm or annoy someone who has harmed or annoyed you. (FORMAL)；invasion：If there is an invasion of a country, a foreign army enters it by force.
Arab Spring：西方媒体所称的“阿拉伯之春”，系指自2010年12月份突尼斯一些城镇爆发动乱以来，阿拉伯世界一些国家民众纷纷走上街头，要求推翻本国的专制政体的行动。
Replaying the history game without 9/11 suggests that, ironically, the real impact of the attacks was not on Americans but on the homelands of the attackers themselves. ♥
编者注：ironically：You use ironically to draw attention to a situation which is odd or amusing because it involves a contrast，具有讽刺意味地。