The Archbishop of Canterbury condemns the U.S. for what’s happening in Iraq, calling it worse than the British land grabs of the colonial era. What a raving lunatic. As Victor David Hanson writes:

I suggest that the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams read a little history about the British experience in India before he offers politically-correct but historically laughable sermons like the one he gave to a Muslim “lifestyle” magazine:

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.

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?

TWO, Williams should read a little about British military campaigns in India, and then count the corpses.

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.

FOUR, I don’t recall the British, after their second year in India, fostering nation-wide elections.

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.

…I might also add that if the Archbishop is TRULY serious about the West being “fundamentally adrift”, he might look at the activist loons – including, BTW, our own Presiding Bishop – who have hijacked the Episcopal Church and are hell-bent on leading it over the cliff. Talk about your “fundamentally adrift”…

Roger Kimball calls the Archbishop a public embarrassment, and I’m inclined to agree. These are dark days for the Anglican Communion.

Which makes me think: I wonder if the Archbishop was among those who said we went into Iraq for the oil. Checked out your local gas pump lately? If only what the loons are asserting were the truth…

I wonder how many athiests would ever consider doing this. Talk about ministry on the front lines. (Hat tip: The Anchoress)

OK, I’ve visited three Episcopal churches here in the Valley of the Sun and I’m done. I’ve done my time and my “due diligence” and have come away extremely unimpressed. Well-intentioned all, to be sure, but not very inspiring – not a lotta meat on those theological bones, if you know what I mean. So, it’s time to start checking out alternatives. This week, it’s St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic Church in Mesa.