Like the Bourbons, Barack Obama and his national security advisers have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. They have not forgotten that they were first elected in 2008 to “end” Middle East wars, and the administration’s response to the attacks in Paris last week reveals that they have yet to learn any different.

Thus Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser and the president’s strategic id, instructed ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos that the United States would have to be “nimble” in attacking the Islamic State. This has been a consistent theme of administration talking points since Obama launched his anti-ISIS campaign back in September 2014.