From the editor: A little bit dim

Universal truths are hard to come by, when you think about it.

We can all agree on “thou shalt not kill,” for example—until war, hoodies, bad guys with guns or the right to choose muddy the issue. Same with that “give unto Caesar” bit, which we pummel every year with jabs about just how much really belongs to government.

Even more modern bits of advice, such as “don’t do drugs,” fail scrutiny when you consider the handfuls of behavioral modification pills we pump down teenage throats every month.

But I would argue the case for one sage universal truth that does indeed stand the test of time: “The truth is, these are not very bright guys.”

It was uttered by Hal Holbrook’s “Deep Throat” character in the film “All the President’s Men.” He (or the scriptwriter, in this case) was referring to Richard Nixon and his team of advisers. I’m inclined to believe that the comment can be applied to just about every pundit or politician out there, at least on the national level.

Sending Susan Rice out on the television circuit to spread the notion that attacks in Benghazi resulted from an online video or that Sgt. Beau Bergdahl served with honor are just two examples. Her embarrassing comments would not have happened in a well-informed, well-directed, completely cognizant administration.

Of course, lack of insight is not just a Democratic problem. Take, for example, the series of “august” talking heads that appeared on television news programs to criticize Barack Obama’s handling of the mess in Iraq. That’s right—Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, Douglas Feith and even the unmitigated Dick Cheney.

To me, bringing these guys in as “experts” on the matter is a lot like hiring Justin Bieber as a life coach or asking Michelle Obama to pitch microwavable Salisbury steaks or new extra salty style Doritos, now in two-pound serving sizes.

Not that the president’s approach to Iraq and Syria should not be open to serious questioning. He has appeared to hem and haw, without offering up a clear concept of the course this country must take in the region. He has drawn hard lines then realized he carved them in porous sand. On so many other occasions he and his appointed staff bumbled—the healthcare.gov rollout, is but one example—as if in well over their heads. But the original architects of our conflict in Iraq, who urged us there with misstatement after misstatement, mistaken assumption after mistaken assumption, mindless chest thumping and empty promises have no right to pass themselves off as anything more than “not very bright guys.”

There are the memorable gaffes, such as the assertion Iraqis would welcome us as liberators, the 2006 insistence that much of that country was at peace or the motivation for invasion itself. You know, all those phantom weapons of mass destruction.

When challenged in 2002 that inspections could prevent Saddam Hussein from reaching the finish line in his supposed quest to build a nuclear arsenal, Kristol told television news audiences that Hussein had already “crossed the finish line.”

Back in the 90s, George H.W. Bush—one of the few sharp minds in all of this—warned that toppling Hussein would create a vacuum into which all manner of sectarian opportunists might flood. A decade later Wolfowitz sought to calm such fears, pointing out “there’s been none of the record in Iraq of ethnic militias fighting.”

Of course, he failed to mention that Hussein’s brutal rule prevented outbreaks of ethnic fighting. By removing his Sunni government from power, we unleashed pent up opposition. The men put in charge of rebuilding Iraq by George W. Bush contributed to the powder keg by handing power to a coalition of Shiite parties and encouraging them, in our benign way, to be inclusive. Or as Kristol put it way back when, “we talk here about Shiites and Sunnis as if they’ve never lived together. Most Arab countries have Shiites and Sunnis, and a lot of them live perfectly well together.”

True enough, but we were not talking about most countries.

I’ve inadvertently left Congress out of this account. Unfortunately, there are far too many examples from that body. Feel free to fill in the blanks.

So I’ll fall back upon a little wisdom from the movies. These are not very bright guys, whether one administration referring to torture as a “no brainer” or another repeatedly insisting Americans shifting to Affordable Care Act plans could keep their favorite doctors.

If only they knew better.