There is some talk of a treaty alliance with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates as a move toward “containing” Iran. What an unusual group of nations. They also seem to be leaning toward a peculiar acronym, derived from Middle East Alliance Treaty Organization.

Apparently nobody bothered with the etymology of the word. The Latin meatus refers to an opening or passage. The most common use of the term is in reference to the urethral opening. I will refrain from posting any images for further explanation. I just wonder if what they wanted to imply could have been done with a more direct TLA (three letter acronym) such as POP for Piss on Persia.

If they had chosen to include the Italians in the alliance they could have avoided this sort of semantic problem. Unless this really wasn’t a mistake?

Israel ‘Opting to Contain’ Nuclear Iran?