I was a child during the Vietnam War, and it was impossible to miss antiwar protests. I remember a common sentiment best expressed by Senator George McGovern: “I’m tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight.”

我在越战期间还是个孩子，那时几乎不可能不注意到反战抗议。我记得当时有一种普遍情绪，充分体现在了参议员乔治·麦戈文的一句话中：“我厌倦了老年人构想战争，却让年轻人去打。”

And here we go again.

而现在，这似乎又在重演。

President Trump has reached a fork in his Iran war. One path would be diplomatic, and Trump has tried to reassure financial markets that we’re headed that way. Iran is “‘begging’ us to make a deal,” he claimed.

特朗普总统在伊朗战争问题上走到了一个岔路口。一条路是外交途径，特朗普也试图让金融市场放心，我们正朝着那个方向前进。他声称，伊朗正在“‘恳求’我们达成协议”。

The problem is that Iran is not in fact begging for a deal. On the contrary, it has found fabulous leverage by closing the Strait of Hormuz to most traffic other than its own. Iranians must be thinking that they largely gave up their nuclear program in the accord with President Barack Obama, and they got a measly $400 million for that (later, there was more). This month, all Iran had to do was block the Strait of Hormuz for a few weeks, and the Trump administration lifted some oil sanctions that could amount to upward of $14 billion. No wonder Iran seems to feel it has the upper hand.

问题在于，伊朗实际上并没有在恳求达成协议。恰恰相反，它通过将霍尔木兹海峡关闭、只允许本国船只通行，获得了巨大的筹码。伊朗人想必在想，他们在与奥巴马总统达成的协议中基本上放弃了核计划，却只得到了区区4亿美元（后来又获得了一些）。而在这个月，伊朗只需要将霍尔木兹海峡封锁几周，特朗普政府就解除了部分石油制裁，其价值可能高达140亿美元。难怪伊朗似乎觉得自己占了上风。

So while Trump may want an offramp, his conundrum is that any deal reached now would be substantially worse than Iran’s reported offer last month (a three-year pause in all uranium enrichment and strict limits thereafter).

因此，尽管特朗普可能希望找到一个台阶下，但他面临的难题在于，现在达成的任何协议都会远逊于伊朗上个月据称提出的条件（即暂停所有铀浓缩活动三年，并在此后施加严格限制）。

I’m in favor of the diplomatic path, but let’s be honest: Any deal would be a pretty bad one and would strengthen a brutal regime that oppresses its people and menaces the region.

我支持外交途径，但实话实说：任何协议都可能相当糟糕，并且会巩固一个压迫本国人民、威胁整个地区安全的残暴政权。

Because the diplomatic option is so unappealing, Trump seems poised to seize an even worse one: dispatching ground troops to invade Iran. He is sending thousands of Marines and paratroopers to the region, and The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon is considering whether to send another 10,000 ground troops.

由于外交选项如此缺乏吸引力，特朗普似乎准备选择一条更糟糕的道路：派遣地面部队入侵伊朗。他正在向该地区增派数千名海军陆战队员和伞兵，而《华尔街日报》报道称，五角大楼正在考虑是否再增派1万名地面部队。

“This is a dangerous point,” Vali Nasr, a veteran Iran watcher at Johns Hopkins University, told me. “Maybe Trump has no choice but to go down this path, because to go to the table right now would really admit defeat. But this is the quandary of his own making.”

“这是一个危险的时刻，”约翰斯·霍普金斯大学资深伊朗问题专家瓦利·纳斯尔告诉我。“也许特朗普别无选择，只能走这条路，因为现在走到谈判桌前就等于承认失败。但这是他自己造成的困境。”

The most discussed target for seizure is Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export base. Yes, the Marines probably could conquer Kharg, even though the Iranians have reportedly laid traps and improved defenses. As Senator Lindsey Graham, the Trump whisperer, said, “We did Iwo Jima; we can do this.” What Graham didn’t mention was that 26,000 Americans were killed or wounded capturing the Japanese island of Iwo Jima near the end of World War II.

最受关注的打击目标是哈尔克岛——伊朗的主要石油出口基地。是的，海军陆战队或许能拿下哈尔克岛，尽管据报道伊朗人已经布设了陷阱并加强了防御。正如特朗普的心腹、参议员林赛·格雷厄姆所说：“我们打下过硫磺岛，我们也能拿下这里。”格雷厄姆没有提到的是，在二战末期攻占日本硫磺岛时，有2.6万名美军伤亡。

The challenge isn’t just seizing Kharg; the greater nightmare would be protecting troops there, day after day, week after week, from drones and other attacks.

问题不仅在于占领哈尔克岛，更大的噩梦在于此后如何一天天、一周周地保护驻扎在那里的部队免受无人机和其他攻击。

The United States has been unable to fully protect its own hardened military bases in the region at much greater distances from Iran, forcing soldiers to evacuate to hotels. “Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable,” my Times colleagues Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt reported. So if we can’t protect our bases, how will we protect Marines dropped off on an Iranian island?

美国在该地区拥有多处坚固的军事基地，距离伊朗要远得多，但即便如此，美军也未能完全保护这些基地，士兵们被迫撤离到酒店。“美军在该地区使用的13个军事基地中，有许多几乎无法居住，”我在《纽约时报》的同事海伦·库珀和埃里克·施密特报道称。那么，如果我们连自己的基地都保护不了，又该如何保护被投放到一座伊朗岛屿上的海军陆战队员呢？

Why seize Kharg anyway? The theory advanced by hawks is that without oil revenues Iran would be forced to surrender. “Control that island, let this regime die on a vine,” urged Graham.

那为什么还要夺取哈尔克岛？鹰派的理论是，如果失去石油收入，伊朗将被迫投降。“控制那个岛，让这个政权自生自灭，”格雷厄姆敦促道。

Unfortunately, that theory is probably wrong.

不幸的是，这种理论很可能是错误的。

“Even if we take Kharg, Iran won’t capitulate,” Dennis Citrinowicz, formerly the top Iran watcher in Israel Defense Intelligence, told me. “And everything’s going to escalate, and the prices of oil and whatever will be dramatically higher.”

“即使我们拿下哈尔克岛，伊朗也不会投降，”曾任以色列国防军情报局首席伊朗问题分析师丹尼斯·西特里诺维奇告诉我。“一切都会不断升级，油价等等都将大幅上涨。”

If Trump wanted to seize territory, the better choice might be several small islands — Abu Musa and the Tunb islands — that are also claimed by the United Arab Emirates. A joint American and Emirati force could seize them and Emiratis could occupy them.

如果特朗普真的想夺取领土，更好的选择或许是几个较小的岛屿——阿布穆萨岛和大小通布岛——阿联酋也对这些岛屿提出了主权主张。美国与阿联酋的联合部队可以夺取这些岛屿，然后由阿联酋方面驻守。

But even that would be a huge escalation. The truth is that any seizure of Iranian-controlled land would most likely lead Iran to retaliate by attacking energy infrastructure around the region — and, more terrifying, desalination plants that provide the water on which some Gulf cities depend. With refineries out of commission, we could face oil and gas shortages for years to come. The Houthis in Yemen might also join the fray by blocking ship traffic through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the Red Sea choke point equivalent to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf.

但即便如此，这也将是一次巨大的升级。现实是，任何夺取伊控领土的行动都极有可能招致伊朗的报复，比如攻击该地区的能源基础设施——更可怕的是，袭击为一些海湾城市提供水源的海水淡化厂。一旦炼油设施瘫痪，我们可能会在未来数年面临石油和天然气短缺。也门的胡塞武装也可能加入冲突，通过封锁曼德海峡来阻断航运。曼德海峡是红海的咽喉要道，相当于波斯湾的霍尔木兹海峡。

“I don’t see this ending very soon,” Nasr warned. “I think the risk of this becoming uglier, with a lot of costs to the United States, is quite high.”

“我不认为这会在短期内结束，”纳斯尔警告说。“我认为局势变得更加糟糕、让美国付出巨大代价的风险相当高。”

Trump’s aim if he dispatches ground troops is probably “to escalate to de-escalate,” hoping that he can gain leverage over Iran and get a better bargain. That’s possible. But my guess is the opposite: Collapsing financial markets would give Iran even more leverage than it has now.

如果特朗普派遣地面部队，他的目的很可能是“以升级促降级”，希望借此获得对伊朗的筹码，从而谈成一笔更有利的协议。这种可能性是存在的。但我更倾向于相反的判断：金融市场的崩溃反而会让伊朗获得比现在更大的筹码。

Iran’s regime may also have more strategic patience than we do. Remember that after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, Iran recovered its territory by 1982 but was so enraged that it refused a cease-fire and spent another six years fighting in the hope of overthrowing the Iraqi regime. Do we have the same staying power?

伊朗政权可能也比我们更有战略耐心。别忘了，1980年伊拉克入侵伊朗后，伊朗在1982年收复了失地，但因愤怒而拒绝停火，又打了六年仗，希望能推翻伊拉克政权。我们有同样的持久力吗？

For all the uncertainties, one truth I feel deeply from having seen war up close: Old men should not fix their messes by dispatching young people to die in unnecessary wars.

尽管存在诸多不确定性，但有一个我在近距离目睹战争后深信不疑的道理：老一辈不应通过让年轻人为不必要的战争送命来收拾他们自己制造的烂摊子。