Why the US Congress doesn't understand the world

I am reading a very good book by Mort Rosenblum titled Escaping Plato's Cave and in it he reveals that during the Iran-Contra hearings in the 1980s he asked lawyer and political investigator Jack Blum, "[w]hy Congress never seemed to understand foreign affairs." Blum responded with, "Some people in Congress are better than others, but if you add up the total of their understanding of the world it would equal the weight of interplanetary dust. Most have, at best, comic-book knowledge of foreign affairs and how other people see things." If you witnessed the pathetic performances of Representatives Kanjorski and Mica during the Toyota testimony before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month, then you can see that nothing has changed since Blum made his statement all those years ago. On a side note, in my March 1 posting I wrote that I sent Rep. Kanjorski's office an email asking if he owned a passport or spoke another language. I have yet to receive a response.