Doug Saunders and my confession of failure

I have done two posts on the subject of Mr Saunders, who is something or other... oh, he is an "International-Affairs Columnist" at the Canadian Globe and Mail. The first post, relatively short, where we, the Elders, made Mr Saunder a recipient of Simply Jews Medal of Stainhood - quite deservedly. In the second, a longer hatchet job, I tried to fisk Mr Saunders and came out totally confused myself. I am simply unable to grok how a respectable (is it, really, I dunno?) newspaper could employ such a man at any position above coffee and sandwiches gopher*.

Usually my interest in a case like this drops to almost zero. I mean, there are always slow days, even in the Elders' holdings, when anything is good for a laugh. But these days material is jumping onto these here pages by itself, and all in all it's not the best of times to deal with that excrescence of a newspaperman, no matter how laughable.

But the fates decided differently, and somebody (a nice person, actually, I'll have you know) done a not so nice deed, sending me that link. Being rather busy with some local disturbances, I have looked at the headline:

Arabs are in chaos, but they’re only passing through

And the headline confused me on the spot. Who is passing through what? I mean, is it about kidney stones or summat? So I have started to read it and was kinda pleasantly surprised by the third paragraph:

And now, after the successful Arab revolutions of 2011 have descended into the inevitable interval of counter- and counter-counter-revolutions, after elections in Gaza and Egypt have brought unsavoury Islamists to power, after Hamas became the leading force in Palestine's response to Israel, after Syria’s popular opposition movement has coughed up the black-clad ISIL militia, those questions are once again being taken seriously.

And then came the next paragraph**:

It can’t be blamed on religion alone (the largest Muslim countries, such as Indonesia and Bangladesh, have no such problem) or geography (non-Arab African and Middle Eastern countries have fared much better). It is something about Arabs. Or, perhaps, something about the way Arab countries and populations have been treated.

And that was it. The last statement, and I shall repeat it directly, put an end to my sincere attempt to read the whole crapola and to... oh well:

Or, perhaps, something about the way Arab countries and populations have been treated.

400,000,000 (four hundred million) have been "treated"... Beg pardon, you can "treat" a lapdog, less a mastiff, possibly even a bull. Maybe, just maybe, a smallish country. But "treating" four hundred million humans, most of whom are independent for more years than I am alive (which is quite a few years, I can tell ya)?

Nope. No way I am going to proceed with that. I surrender... sorry L.T. You meant well, I know. Somehow, I suspect, even a Hamas Qassam rocket has more sense than this hack. So be it.

You all better do a good thing: read the article Year Four: The Arab Spring Proved Everyone Wrong by Michael J. Totten. Real good, that one, and no buts about it.

So there...

(*) My sincere apologies to all coffee and sandwiches gophers in all newspapers. It was just an example, and I am somehow sure that the appropriate trade-union will reject Doug Saunders. If he ever...

(**) Something tells me it must be the fourth one, but I am too tired to make sure.