I made this part of what I'm saying today in kind of a rhetorical way.

我今天讲的很口头化
I'm posing a question, because I don't really have a good answer to that.

我来问个问题因为我也不知道如何回答
I don't believe that history runs on railroad tracks

我不相信什么历史既定论
and all you need is the timetable to see when modern times show up.

只要知道时间表就能知道现代社会何时到来
But if you look at the horrors of the twentieth century

但你回顾20世纪的恐怖事件
and the butchery of the civilians, in 1895 the Armenian massacre

以及在1895年对亚美尼亚人的残杀
or the butchery of civilians after the Paris Commune of 1871,

或者在1871年巴黎公社失败后的屠杀
it's not too hard to see all of this.

就不难窥见它的全貌了
We're not yet talking about the Holocaust.

我们还没说到大屠杀
We're not yet talking about World War II.

也没讲到二战
But yet, some of that was out there.

但是有些事情是显而易见的了
One more point is that, and I'm obviously not defending the French soldiers.

还有一点当然我并非为法国士兵辩解什么