THE British 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.

Historians will surely judge that Bush's two terms of office have done much more damage to US interests, and indeed to those of the world, than Carter's blunders a generation ago. A few months ago I heard a British diplomat in Washington bemoan the horrors of the current administration. We must just somehow stagger through to the end, he muttered. I said that it seemed rash to assume the next US president would be perfectly to the taste of Britain, or the world, because few people elected to the White House ever are. He said: "Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be worse than what we have got now."

The history of the "special" relationship between Israel and America has been extensively documented by many historians and scholars, including Israeli and American Jewish scholars. Unfortunately, for the west and especially for us, Americans, these books are deliberately kept out of our bookstores and libraries for politically kosher reasons. It’s the same old story of the powerful American Jewish lobby ensuring that very little if any truth or criticism of Israel is ever publicized. Hell hath no fury like "Israel" scorned.

We are bid to celebrate the fourth birthday of a lie. In 2003, they lied about Iraq's weapons arsenal. They lied about Saddam Hussein's "imminent threat" to Britain. Some of them lied that he was involved in 9/11. Today, steeped in the psychology of denial, they lie that things are really fine, are getting better, are better than before, are on the turn. There might have been mistakes, but there was no Great Mistake.

John McCain, formerly the leading Republican presidential contender, has told The Sunday Telegraph that restoring America's sullied reputation abroad will be "a top priority" if he wins the White House. The Arizona senator, an Iraq war hawk, was talking aboard the revived Straight Talk Express - the vehicle that made his name during the 2000 presidential election and that he hopes will revive his faltering fortunes this time round.

"We are all Americans," wrote Le Monde on September 12, 2001. And so it was with most people in the Muslim world, who were as appalled as anyone else at the carnage of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York. Indeed, when America responded to the attacks, almost no one mourned the fall of the Taliban, who were universally condemned for their fanaticism. This unanimity of opinion no longer exists. In the five years since the attacks, two audiences for the so-called "war on terror" have emerged. Indeed, as the "war" progressed, the audience closest to the action began to see the emerging combat in a way that was diametrically opposed to that of the United States and the west. Worse yet, America waved the banner of democracy as it prosecuted its wars. But hopes for democracy, be it secular or Islamist, for the people concerned have been buried in the rubble and carnage of Baghdad, Beirut, and Kandahar.