The London Times reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury judges the United States to be the 'worst imperialist' of all.
Whether America is indeed the worst imperialist of all is not really the story. The story is that the Archbishop of Canterbury has pronounced it so and thus reminded everyone that as the world's lone superpower, America is, in fact, the biggest preemptive bully in this bruised and battered postmodern world.
The Archbishop derided the notion that God is on America's side and made the shocking claim that God did not design the universe to revolve around America. Oh Mon Dieu!
The Times:
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.”
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”.
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”.
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.”
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