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Charles Krauthammer in Britain's Humiliation and Europe's (here too)exposes the weakness (or phoniness) of the European Union.

Why was nothing done? The reason is simple. Europe functions quite well as a free-trade zone, but as a political entity it is a farce. It remains a collection of sovereign countries with divergent interests. A freeze of economic relations with Europe would have shaken the Iranian economy to the core. "The Dutch," reported the Times of London, "said it was important not to risk a breakdown in dialogue." So much for European solidarity.

The same problem affects the United Nations.

The problem is most striking at the United Nations, the quintessential transnational institution with a mandate to maintain international peace and order. There was a commonality of interest at its origin -- defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. The war ended, but the wartime alliance of Britain, France, the United States, China and Russia proclaimed itself the guardian of postwar "collective security" as the Security Council.

Small problem: Their interests are not collective. They are individual. Take the Iranian nuclear program. Russia and China make it impossible to impose any serious sanctions. China has an interest in maintaining strong relations with a major energy supplier and is not about to jeopardize that over Iranian nukes that are no threat to it whatsoever. Russia sees Iran as a useful proxy in resisting Western attempts to dominate the Persian Gulf.

Then Krauthammer pounds away at the halcyon days that never happened.

Remember the great return to multilateralism -- the new emphasis on diplomacy and "working with the allies" -- so widely heralded at the beginning of the second Bush administration? To general acclaim, the cowboys had been banished and the grown-ups brought back to town.

What exactly has the new multilateralism brought us? North Korea tested a nuclear device. Iran has accelerated its march to developing the bomb. The pro-Western government in Beirut hangs by a thread. The Darfur genocide continues unabated.

It's worth noting that even during the much vaunted Clinton administration, America was pushing for stronger sanctions against Iraq than France was willing to tolerate.

When there was multilateralism it was to topple Slobodan Milosevic by bombing civilian targets in Serbia. And even then the war didn't go exactly as planned, Milosevic held out a lot longer than our government and its allies said he would. But that wasn't the European Union acting; it was NATO. (But now NATO was of no help to Britain vs. Iran either.)

International organizations are wonderful ideas, but perhaps they should be left to economic spheres. National interests are too important to be left to others.

UPDATE: Bloodthirsty Liberals comments on the column in the wonderfully titled Running to Mommy. Town Commons presents an analysis based on Krauthammer and other pundits.

UPDATE II: more via Buzztracker.

Blogdigger tags: Britain, Iran, European Union, United Nations.