Sometimes they make the Democrats in our Congress look sane on foreign policy by example. The House of Commons foreign affairs committee just submitted a wide ranging assessment of every aspect of the Middle East, and where they wanted to see British policy affect it in the near future. There were many striking examples of why so many in the UK, while still our fiercest ally, just don't understand the threat we face here and abroad by a radical Islamist ideology.

For example, when discussing events on the ground in Iraq, even the Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate have gone mute when it comes to criticizing the surge. As soon as the ink was dry on the Mike O'Hanlon-Ken Pollack assessment on the op-ed pages of the New York Times a week or so ago, the Democrats went silent on their critique of the surge. No longer do you hear Senate majority leader Harry Reid saying it's a failed policy and General Petraeus is a disappointment. Even John Murtha has been relatively quiet since the surge was shown by even left of center journalists to be empiracally working. But in the report released in the House of Commons, the following was said about the surge. From yesterday's Guardian:

The US "surge" tactic in Iraq appears likely to fail, a committee of MPs warned in a wide-ranging assessment of the Middle East.

A report by the Commons foreign affairs committee delivered a pessimistic verdict on Washington's bid to restore peace by committing 30,000 extra troops.

"It is too early to provide a definitive assessment of the US 'surge' but it does not look likely to succeed," the MPs concluded.

"We believe that the success of this strategy will ultimately ride on whether Iraq's politicians are able to reach agreement on a number of key issues."

It called on the British government to set out what actions it was taking to help foster political reconciliation amid growing pressure to withdraw coalition forces.

There is one place in Iraq that currently displays the largest amount of sectarian violence, and that place is in the south, in the city of Basra. Why is that place such a mess right now while other places like Anbar and Diayala Province have made remarkable turnarounds? Because that's an area that was relatively stable until a few months ago, when the British basically cut and run, turning the city over to the Iraqis who were not yet ready to handle the security on their own. The surge, wherever it's been applied, has shown increased security on the military front, and has resulted in many documented cases of political reconciliation from the local level on up. The national government is still not where anybody wants it to be, but to say that reconciliation is not taking place on many levels in Iraq is to turn a blind eye to the realities on the ground. Where coalition forces have precipitously withdrawn, like the Brits have done in Basra, chaos has ensued.

One other note, it's good that the MP's on the committee have asked the Brown government to explain what efforts they were taking to foster reconciliation while retreating at the same time. It's about as silly as demanding the fire department state how they were going to put out the forest fire while grounding the planes and bugging out with all the fire trucks.

Also from the Guardian recap of the report, regarding Iran, we read this:

Welcoming growing engagement with Iran over the situation, the committee's report also demanded to know what evidence the UK had the neighbouring country was supporting terrorism.

Evidence? The Brits want evidence Iran is supporting terrorism? Are they kidding? They're on the foreign relations committee and they've never heard of the Quds forces? Their generals are that much inferior to ours in that they can't recognize Iranian Quds force uniforms being worn by the people we've captured in Iraq meddling with the insurgents to kill coalition forces? They think Hezbollah and Hamas just print their own money and make their own rockets to send into Israel? Evidence? Do they think that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when speaking publicly that it won't be long before Israel is wiped off the map, is not supporting terrorism in his statements? Or do they just think he's making a joke, trying out for the international jihadi version of Last Comic Standing?

It's sad that a once powerful and good country is so unserious at a time when the West needs seriousness to face the most dangerous enemy it has ever been confronted with. Let's continue to hope that our military keeps up with their progress, making an environment possible for the political future of Iraq to take hold, because America may just be the last best hope for the West.