The "universality" of songs like this is simply keeping any statements vague enough that they don't offend anybody into not buying the thing.

The guy was a professional popster. The song made him a lot of money. If it had said anything genuinely uncomfortable about the US corporate mass-murder machine of the time - getting people to actually do something specific towards destroying it rather than just feel good and selfrighteous - it would have made him a lot less money. End of story.

I have never met a single person who did a single positive political act as a result of listening to anything Dylan wrote, and a hell of a lot who just sat at home listening to his dreamy waffle on their record players when they could have been out making a difference. The net political effect of his lifework is indistinguishable from Sinatra's.