The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has seen fit to sharply criticize the U.S. for imperialism to an appreciative audience of Muslims. He also criticized the U.S. for having done nothing to rebuild Iraq's physical or political infrastructure. As to Western civilization as a whole, he muses to this audience that"“[o]ur 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.”
As to any criticism of Islam - i.e., the most imperialistic force in history that has left nearly every country in which it has become ascendent a medieval backwater, and not to mention that it has been the driving force responsible for untold carnage in the world over the past two decades - he had words of praise for the Muslim habit of praying 5 times a day. You will find the article here.
Rather than question the Archbishop's sanity, let alone his grasp on reality, it is probably better just to make this brief but wholly appropriate reply in which, I am sure, most Americans will join:
[scroll down]
As to any criticism of Islam - i.e., the most imperialistic force in history that has left nearly every country in which it has become ascendent a medieval backwater, and not to mention that it has been the driving force responsible for untold carnage in the world over the past two decades - he had words of praise for the Muslim habit of praying 5 times a day. You will find the article here.
Rather than question the Archbishop's sanity, let alone his grasp on reality, it is probably better just to make this brief but wholly appropriate reply in which, I am sure, most Americans will join:
[scroll down]
Update: Victor David Hanson felt a bit more loquacious:
ONE, who is clearing the decks and moving on? And who are the "other people" putting Iraq back together? Iran? Saudi Arabia? China? The British in Basra? First, we read from the anti-war Left that the US is wasting a trillion dollars and thousands of its lives in Iraq, and yet now that we are clearing the decks and not putting it back together? Which is it?
. . . THREE, he should also tally up the amount of money the U.S. has spent for civic and economic development in Iraq over four years, and then compare that to what Britain invested in any four-year period in their centuries-long occupation of India.
. . . FIVE, if he is worried about the soul of civilization in general, and the U.S. in particular, he might equally ask his Muslim interviewers about the status of women in the Muslim world, polygamy, female circumcision, the existence of slavery in the Sudan, the status of free expression and dissent, and religious tolerance (i.e., he should try to visit Mecca on his next goodwill, interfaith tour) .
SIX, all Williams will accomplish is to convince Episcopalians in the U.S. not to follow the Anglican Church, and most Americans in general that, if they need any reminders, many of the loud left-wing British elite, nursed on envy of the US, still petulant over lost power and influence, and scared stiff of the demographic and immigration trends in its own country, are well, unhinged.
Read it here.