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“What’s in a name?” That famous question came from the mouth of Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet while under her rhapsodic infatuation with Romeo Montague. What Juliet means is that she doesn’t care about Romeo’s last name — nor the feud between Capulet and Montague. The name is meaningless. Love is all.

But as adults, we know that there is much in a name. Name is identity in some cases. A person’s name is his or her calling card to the world. Our names speak of honour: We speak of “the family name” (or once did) in such a sense.

Under the clotted doctrine of political correctness, we pay backhanded homage to the importance attached to the real names of things … by avoiding those real names: by dipping deeds and practices into the sludge of euphemism.

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Al-Moallem’s remarks at a news conference in Damascus also marked the first public comments by a senior Assad official on the threat posed by ISIS, which has captured large swaths of Iraqi and Syrian territory.

“Syria is ready to co-operate and co-ordinate on the regional and international level in the war on terror,” Al-Moallem said. “But any effort to combat terrorism should be co-ordinated with the Syrian government.”

Al-Moallem appeared keenly aware of how much has changed in the past year as he spoke Monday. Since then, global disapproval has shifted away from Assad and toward the Islamic extremists who are fighting him and spreading destruction across Syria and Iraq.