Buckley concedes

Even William F. Buckley has come to the conclusion that the war in Iraq has failed to bring about the results he had hoped for.

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. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy.