又中又英 | Wag the dog | 褚簡寧
Most dog owners know a dog wags its tail to communicate emotions such as happiness or excitement. To wag means to move something, such as your finger or a dog's tail, from side to side or up and down. But can the tail wag the dog? Of course not! The tail wagging the dog is an idiom which means a smaller part of something controlling the bigger part, such as a small unprofitable part of a company controlling the whole company. The 1997 movie Wag the Dog starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro shortened the expression and gave it a political meaning.
The movie is about a US president who started a fake war to divert attention from a sex scandal. The expression "wag the dog" now means US presidents starting wars to divert attention from political scandals. It was released one month before the media exposed former President Bill Clinton's 1998 sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern during Clinton’s presidency. But the movie drew comparisons with Clinton when he bombed Afghanistan after the media exposed the sex scandal.
Did US President Donald Trump wag the dog in attacking Iran? His critics are accusing him of wagging the dog to divert attention from the high cost of living, his low popularity, and his alleged cover-up of the so-called Epstein files involving child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019. These issues are likely to hurt Trump and his Republican Party in November's mid-term Congressional elections. Latest polls show just a quarter of Americans support Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran.
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大部分的狗主都知道，一隻狗搖（wags）尾巴是在表達快樂或興奮等情緒。To wag的意思是左右或上下搖動或擺動某物，例如你的手指或狗的尾巴。但有沒有可能調轉過來，由尾巴搖動狗隻（tail wag the dog）？當然不可！The tail wagging the dog是一個成語，意指本末倒置地由小事物控制大局，例如由一個小型不賺錢的部門控制整間公司。1997年由德斯汀．荷夫曼和羅拔迪尼路主演的電影《作大英雄》（Wag the Dog），就將習語縮短了，再給它賦予一個政治含意。
電影是關於一個美國總統打了一場虛擬的戰爭，以轉移公眾對其性醜聞的關注。習語wag the dog現在用來形容美國總統利用戰爭去轉移公眾對政治醜聞的關注。電影在1998年傳媒揭露前總統比爾．克林頓與莫妮卡．萊溫斯基之間有性關係前的一個月上映，當時22歲的萊溫斯基是克林頓總統任期內的白宮實習生。然而，人們還是拿電影跟克林頓作對比，因為當傳媒揭露克林頓的性醜聞後，他就下令轟炸阿富汗。
美國總統特朗普襲擊伊朗時，又是否在轉移視線（wag the dog）？他的批評者指控他在「尾巴搖狗」（wagging the dog），讓公眾不那麼關注高漲的生活成本、自己的低民望，以及他被指控掩蓋所謂的愛潑斯坦檔案，事件涉及2019年在監房中身亡的兒童性罪犯愛潑斯坦。這些議題都很有可能在11月國會中期選舉中損害特朗普和他的共和黨。最新的民調顯示，只有四分一美國人支持特朗普跟伊朗開戰的決定。
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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻
