Near East vs. Middle East

[Mark A. Mandel]

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> writes:

>>>>>
>From a book published in 1949 about the USAAF Air Transport Command in World
War II:

"...others [of the bombers being ferried] joined the battle for the Middle
East [footnote 2]"

Footnote 2 reads:

"I regret that the English fave foisted this term upon us, as they did
"ferrying".  We grew up calling this area the Near East, which makes sense.
"Middle" implies more of the same on either side, which is not the case
with
Egypt-Libya."
<<<<<

I disagree. The US "Midwest" is not in the middle of the West. On the
contrary, it is partway from the East Coast to the West, so partway along
on the route of migration. Similarly, in Eurocentric geography the "Middle
East" is partway from "home" to the "Far East", and could easily have
coincided with the "Near East".

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com