THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.
Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by "clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the
worst of all worlds”.In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.
He said the crisis was caused not just by America’s actions but also by its misguided sense of its own mission. He poured scorn on the “chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of God’s purpose for humanity”.
Williams went beyond his previous critique of the conduct of the war on terror, saying the United States had lost the moral high ground since September 11. He urged it to launch a “generous and intelligent programme of aid directed to the societies that have been ravaged; a check on the economic exploitation of defeated territories; a demilitarisation of their presence”.
He went on to suggest that the West was fundamentally adrift: “Our modern western definition of humanity is clearly not working very well. There is something about western modernity which really does eat away at the soul.”
Even discounting the bizarre eyebrows, which are distracting in the extreme, the Archbishop should know that one cannot make a deal with the devil, which he is clearly doing. Either that or he's a complete and total buffoon - you make the call.
It's unbearably annoying that mainstream clerics bash western civilization while ignoring the clear and present evils of Islam. Were he to make similar comments about the Islamo-Facists, he may well be murdered while the 'soul eating' western modernity allows him to babble with impunity.
As for the tiresome charge of "imperialism"; search as I may, I have failed to find any oppressed American colonies, or any American colonies whatsoever. What I have found is a long list of defeated foes who were rebuilt as a result of American benevolence.
UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson offers the Archbishop some wisdom - something of which VDH has a plethora and the Archbishop, obviously, has a dearth.
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