Novak says that, regardless of the status of the insurgency, a reelected Bush administration would pull US forces out of Iraq early next year, right after the Iraqi elections. He cites unnamed but well-placed administration sources in saying that Condoleeza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz, who he predicts will head the Dept of State and the Dept of Defense respectively in the second term, will advocate for withdrawal. “Getting out of Iraq would end the neoconservative dream of building democracy in the Arab world. The United States would be content having saved the world from Saddam Hussein’s quest for weapons of mass destruction.” Novak says that president-elect Kerry would probably do the same thing as military leaders review the untenability of our situation there with him after his election, although this is more speculative than sourced. Of course Bush, who has a constitutional inability to admit a mistake, wiould not hint at such a plan until after the election. But it seems to me that Bush patsy Novak might spread this rumor regardless of its basis in reality, since it allows Bush supporters to have it both ways for the rest of the campaign in the face of Kerry’s attempts to make a focal issue of BUsh’s Iraq mistake. (Chicago Sun-Times)