Here’s one thing Americans can boast about. Everybody is an expert here.

Look at the Iraq situation, for instance. We are all experts in this. From politicians on down.

We have politicians who don’t know a gun battery from an Eveready. Or a troop surge from a blue serge. Yet they tell us what we absolutely must do in the streets of Bagdhad. Sure, they get extra reports on what is going on there. But I doubt whether they see any more than the average American can see with a little digging.

Even state and local politicians chime in. The President needs to do this. He must stop doing that. The President is an idiot!

Most of these pols have not served on so much as an armed services committee. Few if any have been in a uniform since Scouts. They have, amongst them, more training in channel surfing than military matters.

And even if they have some training, how does it make them experts? I served on 11 Navy ships, on the staff of a commodore. Am I an expert in naval warfare? Right. My knowledge there is second only to my knowledge of brain surgery. Uh, let’s snip that little blood vessel there. Ooops. Was that his ear that fell on the floor?

Doesn’t matter. The pols troop before the cameras with demands for timetables for withdrawing our troops. Dear enemy: Thought you’d want to know what our plans are. They know how many troops we should have there. Or not have there. They know how and where they should be deployed. And what kind of vehicles and weapons they need. Or don’t.

They know what sorts of demands we must make of the Iraqis. And what we should demand of the Syrians and Iranians.

Our columnists and tv’s bobbing heads are authorities too. They deliver messages like “The President’s biggest mistakes in Iraq.” “How to extract ourselves from the Iraq disaster.”

And they sound so absolutely certain they are right! I guess you learn to do that when you go to expert school.