They were both, for reasons I don't have to explain to you,

双方都原因我就不必解释了
desperately eager to reduce casualties to a minimum

极力想要将伤亡降到最低
and they were desperately eager to choose an approach

并寻求能够尽量缩短
that would limit the time that the war lasted,

战争时长的策略
because of the political situation in the last decades in American history

美国近几十年的政治环境占据了一定的优势
and they had an advantage technologically that seemed to make that possible.

而技术上的优势也让这一战略具有了可行性
America's fantastic advantage in fire power,

美国强大的军火实力
the capacity to deliver the fire power at a distance

能够在冒很小风险的情况下
with very little risk to the deliverers,

进行相当程度的攻击
with the notion of doing tremendous harm when it got there,

对目的地造成巨大伤害
but I don't know if any of you remember any of this,

不知道你们大家是否还记得这件事情
some of you were too young

我猜那时候你们都还太小