Posted on 11/24/2007 11:42:20 PM PST by Roberts
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.”
Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: “We have only one global hegemonic power. It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.”
He contrasted it unfavourably with how the British Empire governed India. “It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India, for example.
“It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together — Iraq, for example.”
In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its “political solutions were not the most impressive”.
He commends the Muslim practice of praying five times a day, which he says allows the remembrance of God to be “built in deeply in their daily rhythm”.
Actually, he is probably hoping to team up with Charles (who conceivably would choose a name like ‘Achmed the First’ when he takes the throne) to declare the Church of England a new sect of Islam.
Don’t know if that will be Sunni or Shiite, ‘tho.
The big question will be, “Will the other 4 Anglicans left in England convert with them?”
You forgot Hawaii probably our low point in colonization.
Rowan, don’t say anything beastly about the Mohammedans, lest you share the fate of Anne Boleyn.
Bookmarked
Ungrateful pig. Were it not for the U.S. he’d be speaking German instead of English. It is sad how short many of today’s Europeans’ memories are...
Who cares what the Archbishop of Dingleberry thinks!!!
The Archbishop ought to confine his comments to matters with which he is acquainted - elderberry wine, place-seeking, and buggery.
Can you imagine going back to English food after just about any cuisine? LOL.
Think of all that we could do with our military and economic strength. How does gas at .29 cents a gallon sound?
Yet we don’t. We deal fairly and the world reaps the benefit.
To be Imperial is to possess, or hope to possess, an empire, and these slanders have been made for about a century now. The Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines "empire" as "group of countries ruled by a single person, government or country." Oxford paperback dictionary calls it "a large group of states under single authority." Cambridge goes on to define imperialismï as "system in which a country rules other countries, sometimes having used force to obtain power over them."
ANY rational person can see that the United States does not meet these qualifications by any stretch of the imagination. What nations do we rule? Whose legislative bodies can we overturn with a wave of the hand? Where on this planet do people live under an American flag who do not wish to? And as Jonah Goldberg correctly points out, where are our governors and our tax collectors so that we can siphon off the meager wages of our Imperial Slaves? What kind of empire does not have these imperial mechanisms?
At the end of World War II, America stood astride the world as the unchallenged military and economic power. The terrible might of Germany and Japan lay crushed in smoldering ruin. Great Britain, bled white by the near-total loss of two successive generations of their best and brightest, was in barely better shape. China was a collection of pre-industrial peasants fighting a bitter civil war, and nowhere in the rest of Asia, Africa or South America did there exist anything more than local defense militias.
Read the complete essay here http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000017.html
Whatever its flaws, British imperial policy was demonstrably productive for its supposed subjects.
Essentially, the third world can be split into four parts: British colonial regions, French colonial regions, other European colonial regions, plus uncolonized.
Of these, the colonial regions are, in general, far better off economically and politically than the uncolonized category. And the British colonial regions have displayed by far the greatest ability to govern themselves.
In my view, the British have nothing to apologize for when it comes to their imperialist policies. They ran a largely benign imperium.
broadly : the extension or imposition of power, authority, or influence
Yeah? well, that defines EVERYONE as an Imperialist
I said he’s a crank. They, people like him, preach to empty churches partly because of their crank world view. You can decide if he’s a heretic.
See if the good bishop could even gain entrance to either Saudi Arabia or Iran even to preach such anti-American vitriol.
This, coming from an idiot who can’t even keep his church together, which is crumbling before everyone’s eyes.
Let me tell you something, Rowan. The next time Britain’s in trouble and needs some help, we’ll just say “Screw you” and see how that works for you.
Maybe you could call the Muslims for help.
Actually, I think he looks more like a light-in-the-loafers Gabby Hayes.
One need not be a sage nor a modern Nostradamus to foresee great and bloody evil in England's near future.
Given that he sits atop the most apostate church in the history of Christiandom I'd say he's supremely unqualified for the clergy too.
Then we could talk about the the real 'worst of all worlds' -- British Africa.
Rowan Williams is stuck on stupid.
Loud whisper from the gallery- "it's 'im, it's im, I tell you".
Maybe.
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