When some Americans stripped the "French" from "french fries" out of anger over France's betrayal of us on the Iraq issue, many here were outraged at this extreme example of our hyper-nationalism. Me, I favored keeping the "french" in the term out of that very hyper-nationalism. The French elites hate McDonalds so why remove a term that must clearly annoy their culinary sensitivity?
But I digress.
So what does it tell us about our enemies that when the Iranians refuse to call danishes "danishes" anymore to protest the Danish cartoons, it seems like an almost sane thing to do? Indeed, it is the most sane thing they are doing. Would that every protest end with a pastry renaming rather than a burned embassy, headless captive, or "death to the Jews" chant. I'd call that progress.
The difference, of course, is we aren't nutballs and the Iranian mullahs are nutballs. Totally different expectations at work, eh?
About Me
- Brian J. Dunn
- I live and write in Ann Arbor, Michigan. University of Michigan AB and MA from Eastern Michigan University. One term in the Michigan Army National Guard. Former American history instructor and retired nonpartisan research analyst. I write on Blogger and Substack. Various military and private journals have published my occasional articles on military subjects. See "My Published Works" on the TDR web version or under the mobile version drop-down menu for citations and links.
