Lies My Newspaper Told Me

The minute I see a journalist using unnamed sources, I know there’s a good chance I’m being lied to, often big time. In this post Rathergate world anyone who believes such reporting should have what’s left of his or her head examined. A case in point this morning is the ever-popular Robert Novak who is informing us a Quick exit from Iraq is likely.

Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year. This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go.

This prospective policy is based on Iraq’s national elections in late January, but not predicated on ending the insurgency or reaching a national political settlement. 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.

Note the use of weasel words like “strong feeling.” Whose strong feeling Novak isn’t saying. He almost never does. He’s not a journalist. He’s a disinformation service.

UPDATE: Ali agrees. I wonder if Novak would ever consider the feelings (or the lives) of real Iraqis on the subject. I doubt anything more than fifty yards from the Washington Monument gets through his radar.