对于即将离任的共和党众议员托马斯·马西而言，着手开展新一届民主党控制的国会将不得不完成的工作——追究唐纳德·特朗普总统政府的责任——是一件好事。
Good on Thomas Massie as an outgoing Republican Congressman to start the work that the incoming Democratic Congress will have to complete: holding the administration of President Donald Trump to account.
本周，马西再次提出一项措施，旨在弹劾特朗普的国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯，指控其以八种不同方式滥用职权并违法。
This week Massie reintroduced a measure to impeach Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, for abusing his power and breaking the law in eight different ways.
这是马西的第二次尝试，第一次是在中期选举前，当时选民因特朗普、赫格塞斯及整个政府发动的灾难性对伊朗战争及其他种种而严厉惩罚了他们。在第一轮中，共和党籍众议长迈克·约翰逊仅通过休会众议院便避免了对弹劾进行表决。如今即将离任的他，将试图再次钻营规避这次尝试。但所有人都知道，无论是这届跛脚鸭国会还是下一届，都将追究赫格塞斯的责任，除非特朗普先将其解职。
It’s Massie’s second attempt, following one before the midterm elections, in which voters slammed Trump, Hegseth and the whole administration for their disastrous war against Iran and much else. In that first round, the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, avoided voting on impeachment simply by adjourning the House. Now on his way out, he’ll try to squirm out of this attempt too. But everybody knows that Congress, whether this lame-duck one or the next, is coming for Hegseth unless Trump fires him first.
弹劾赫格塞斯的理由与方式都至关重要。这一场面将为新国会接下来的行动确立先例和基调——例如当它传唤国务卿马尔科·鲁比奥及其他内阁成员时，他们也有许多问题需要回答。如果弹劾处理不当，可能会适得其反。特朗普曾两度遭弹劾，选民却仍将他选为连任总统，在其第二个任期中，赫格塞斯等人造成的破坏甚至超过了特朗普首个总统任期。
Both the why and the how of a Hegseth impeachment matter. The spectacle will set the precedent and tone for whatever the new Congress does next — when, for example, it subpoenas Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other cabinet members, who also have a lot to answer for. Get impeachment wrong and it could backfire. Trump was impeached twice, yet voters elected him to a second term, in which the likes of Hegseth wreaked even more damage than Trump did in his first presidency.
从形象上看，赫格塞斯无疑显得最该被弹劾。特朗普曾狂热赞扬他的这位“战争部长”（这是政府的称呼，而非国会的）简直是“中央选角”挑中的人选，尽管这种选角似乎介于某种类型之间。赫格塞斯热爱俯卧撑、睾酮和轰炸；他厌恶肥胖、“觉醒”和酷儿。
Optically, Hegseth certainly looks the most impeachable. Trump has rhapsodized about his secretary of “war” (the administration’s term, not Congress’s) as being right out of “central casting,” even though that casting seems to be in some genre between and . Hegseth loves push-ups, testosterone and bombing; he hates fat, woke and queer.
然而，这些特质均不构成可弹劾的罪名。无能本身也不算，而赫格塞斯也大量展现了这一点。因此，马西挑选了八项指控，希望它们足够具体，能在参议院获得定罪（这不太可能，因为这需要超级多数票）。
None of those traits is impeachable, however. Nor is incompetence as such, which Hegseth also displays in spades. So Massie has chosen eight points that are concrete enough, he hopes, to secure conviction in the Senate (which is unlikely, since it would require a supermajority).
前三项指控赫格塞斯违反了尼克松时代《战争权力决议》的不同方面。在这一决议中，国会曾试图在一定程度上无力地限制总统在违背立法机关意愿的情况下发动战争的能力。例如，赫格塞斯在没有国会授权的情况下在中东下令进行敌对行动的时间，远远超过了该决议规定的90天期限（他荒谬地声称时间曾暂停，随后又重新开始）。
The first three accuse Hegseth of violating different aspects of the Nixon-era War Powers Resolution, in which Congress tried somewhat fecklessly to restrain a president’s ability to make war over the wishes of the legislature. Hegseth, for example, ordered hostilities in the Middle East without congressional authorization for much more than the 90 days stipulated in the resolution (claiming implausibly that the clock had stopped, then restarted).
马西还指控赫格塞斯侵犯了身为退伍军人的参议员马克·凯利的言论自由，因为他威胁要对凯利批评政府的言论进行报复。
Massie also charges Hegseth with violating the free speech of Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran, by threatening to retaliate against him for criticizing the administration.
他还指控这位国防部长违反国际法：绑架委内瑞拉国家元首；轰炸也门；忽视旨在尽量减少平民伤亡的法律；以及轰炸涉嫌贩毒的船只，迄今已造成至少243名平民死亡。
And he accuses the defense secretary of violating international law: by kidnapping the Venezuelan head of state; bombing Yemen; ignoring laws to minimize civilian casualties; and bombing boats of suspected drug traffickers, killing at least 243 civilians so far.
在我看来，最后这两项指控是最恶劣的——马西还提到了拒绝接受投降、对漂浮在水中的幸存者实施二次打击以及未能救援海难幸存者等行为。
These last two accusation, to me, are the most egregious — Massie also mentions, for example, the denial of quarter, secondary strikes on survivors floating in the water and failure to rescue shipwrecked people.
这些指控之所以适合作为弹劾条款，是因为它们具体明确，并展示了这位国防部长所鼓励的死亡崇拜（赫格塞斯用“致命性”一词来包装这种崇拜）。这种文化背离了美国（至少在愿景上）进行合法且“正义”战争的传统。
What commends them as charges for impeachment is that they are specific and demonstrate the death cult (which Hegseth wraps in the word “lethality”) that the defense secretary has encouraged. This culture represents a departure from the American tradition of waging (at least in aspiration) lawful and “just” war.
然而，人们仍可提出异议。美国大学教授乔丹·塔马（Jordan Tama）研究国会在美国外交政策中的作用，他同意政府违反了《战争权力决议》和国际法。但他对我说：“那些是特朗普总统做出的决定。”海格塞斯只是执行了总统的命令——尽管带着不体面的热情。塔马补充说，海格塞斯还犯了提供糟糕建议的罪过，为此应该被解职；“但这不一定构成弹劾的理由。”
And yet one can quibble. Jordan Tama, a professor at American University who studies the role of Congress in US foreign policy, agrees that the administration violated the War Powers Resolution and international law. But “those were decisions made by President Trump,” he told me. Hegseth just carried out presidential orders — with unseemly enthusiasm, admittedly. Hegseth is also guilty of giving terrible advice, and should be fired for it, Tama adds; “but that’s not necessarily grounds for impeachment.”
塔马认为，关于《战争权力决议》的三条弹劾条款引出了另一个问题：几乎所有政府都违反过其字面、精神或两者兼有。（例如，民主党总统曾在2011年利比亚和1999年科索沃未经国会授权下令开展敌对行动。）塔马主张，最好的办法是由下一届国会收紧《战争权力决议》，而不是以此为由弹劾一名内阁成员。
The three articles on the War Powers Resolution raise another problem, Tama thinks: Almost all administrations have violated its letter, spirit or both. (Democratic presidents, for example, ordered hostilities without congressional authorization in Libya in 2011, and Kosovo in 1999.) The best approach, Tama argues, is for the next Congress to tighten the War Powers Resolution, not to impeach one cabinet member on its behalf.
塔马认为，更好的弹劾条款应指控海格塞斯公然将军队政治化，而这本应是绝对的禁忌。海格塞斯不仅通过其反“觉醒”的内部文化战争这样做，还通过解职备受推崇但显然不符合部长意识形态模具的将军和海军上将，以及拒绝军方晋升委员会推荐的晋升来实现这一点。
A better article of impeachment, Tama thinks, would have accused Hegseth of flagrantly politicizing the military, which is supposed to be the ultimate taboo. Hegseth did that not only with his anti-woke internal culture war but also by firing generals and admirals who were highly regarded but apparently didn’t fit the secretary’s ideological mold, or denying promotions that military boards had recommended.
然而，这种做法会导致不同的问题。曾在小布什政府任职的国家安全资深人士、文官控制军队关系专家科里·谢克（Kori Schake）表示，总统和部长任免高级将领的权力是文官控制军队传统的基本原则。他们可能做出最糟糕的决定；但这并不使其构成可弹劾的罪行。
That approach would lead to different problems, however. Kori Schake, a national-security veteran of the George W. Bush administration and an expert on civil-military relations, says that the power of presidents and secretaries to hire and fire top brass is a basic principle of the tradition of civilian control over the military. They may make the worst decisions; but that doesn’t make them impeachable.
海格塞斯仍然应该被弹劾。如果梅西的动议付诸表决，他将会被弹劾，因为相当多的共和党人像民主党人一样痛恨他，且不再像过去那样害怕特朗普。
Hegseth still deserves to be impeached. And he will be if Massie’s measure comes to a vote, because quite a few Republicans loathe him just as much as Democrats do and no longer fear Trump as they used to.
但弹劾只能是对接下来一届国会必须投入的漫长而艰难之战的象征性序幕。在一个理想的世界里，国会应该再次弹劾特朗普；但这会在政治上产生反效果，就像前两次一样。
But impeachment can only be a symbolic overture to the long, hard slog to which the next Congress must then commit. In an ideal world, it would yet again impeach Trump; but that would backfire politically as it did the first two times.
在这个现实的世界里，民主党人以及负责任的共和党人需要开展调查并进行立法——并在必要时扣留资金——从而最终成为国父们所设想的制衡力量。特朗普政府的腐败和滥用权力不能再继续下去，无论是在国内还是国外，而海格塞斯只是一个开始。
In this real world, Democrats, and responsible Republicans, need to investigate and legislate — and where necessary, to withhold funds — to become, at last, the check and balance that the Founders envisioned. The corruption and abuses of the Trump administration cannot go on, neither at home nor abroad, and Hegseth is just the start.