"the" before country name

[Mark Mandel]

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 12:11 AM, Your Name <ROSESKES at aol.com> wrote:

> If "the" before a country's name is belittling, why is there not one single
> American objecting to "the United States"?
>
> Rosemarie


Because we chose that name ourselves? And consequently it describes us as we
want to see ourselves, rather than as 'the border territory'?

--
Mark Mandel

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