By early 2002 Novak was already castigating the Bush Administration for its "Arrogance of Power". A year before the invasion of Iraq, Novak was already claiming that; "The U.S. military today is in no condition to attack anybody". Novak of course went on to repeatedly champion Chuck Hagel's position on Iraq. He quickly dragged out his "War Fever" innuendo, depicting Bush as isolated among Republicans in his desire to remove Saddam Hussein. This would follow his usual pattern of championing Powell over Rumsfeld and Cheney, pushing for coalition backing and UN support. His opposition never wavered, as he mocked the Surge, once again treating Chuck Hagel as an oracle on the Iraq War.
His post 9/11 column was a startlingly ugly performance from Novak, but neither a random occurrence or a departure from the norm. Novak had spent a good deal of the latter part of his career playing defense on the Islamic team. Whether it was the Turkish push for EU membership, "the European Union on Dec. 12 rebuffed both the Turkish and the U.S. governments by rejecting Turkey's application for membership. Abdullah Gul, the new prime minister, accused European leaders of "discrimination" and "prejudice" -- reflecting Islam's current view of the West", bemoaning Republican support for Israel while claiming that conservatives used to be Pro-Arab not Pro-Israel,and defending the Saudis against being being "trashed", noting critically that; "Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, conservative journalists and politicians have pounded on Saudi customs and mores that had not seriously disturbed a relationship between the two dissimilar countries over the past 60 years", (those "customs" of course being such trivial cultural matters as enslaving women, promoting Islamic extremism abroad and treating non-Muslims as inferior), Novak had repeatedly taken the Islamic side of things.
By way of explanation and definitely not apology for Mr. Novak, long ago he was quite a bit more conservative. He also acted more as a true investigative journalist vs assassin during those times. Levin was talking about this on his Tuesday show. I agree that he had moved substantially to the left in say the last decade.
ML/NJ