Search This Blog

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Oh Come on!

This morning there is a piece linked to Drudge from columnist Nile Gardiner of the UK. Gardiner says it is great that president Obama condemned the Iranian attack on the UK embassy in Teheran, but then Gardiner points out that Obama called it the English embassy rather than the British embassy. England, of course, is just one part of the UK along with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and there hasn't been an English embassy anywhere in the world for centuries. Gardiner then recalls that Obama called France "our closest ally" and that he talked of visiting "all 57 states". Isn't this going too far? Do we really expect the president of the United States to know the proper name of the ally with whom we have a special relationship? Just cause the Brits fought alongside Americans in Iraq and are still doing that in Afghanistan is no reason to know the name of their country. Come on -- how demanding have we become as a people. Besides, we need to look at the bright side of this thing: at least when recalling the 1979 attack by Iranians on the US embassy in Teheran, Obama did not call it the Californian embassy.

No comments: