GAME. OVER.

It Didn’t Work
February 24, 2006, 2:51 p.m.

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.

(Via Atrios)


KEY EXCERPTS:

One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed. Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements.

And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.