George Will and the ruling class imperialists.

It is obvious why, for the past three decades, George Will has occupied a top niche in the liberal-left Establishment media's stable of pseudo-conservatives: He is very adept at looking and sounding conservative while promoting liberal-left, internationalist programs. The bow-tied columnist and television commentator is one of the anointed neoconservative spokesmen whose job is selling domestic Big Government programs and international adventurism to Middle America.

Commenting on the escalating violence in Iraq, in an April 7 column entitled, "A War President's Job," Mr. Will avers: "[T]he first task of the occupation remains the first task of government--to establish a monopoly on violence...." America's Founding Fathers might beg to differ; they said nothing in our Constitution about establishing "a monopoly on violence." What they did say, in the Preamble to the Constitution, is that their intent was to "establish justice" and "establish this Constitution."

Will writes that "the (relatively) pretty phase of empire--the swift dispatch of an enemy army--is over. Regime change, occupation, nation-building--in a word, empire--is a bloody business. Now Americans must steel themselves for administering the violence necessary to disarm or defeat Iraq's urban militias, which replicate the problem of modern terrorism--violence that has slipped the leash of states."

After favorably quoting Napoleon Bonaparte on the need for perseverance and sacrifice in imperialist campaigns, Mr. Will declares: "Since 9/11, Americans have been told that they are at war. They have not been told what sacrifices, material and emotional, they must make to sustain multiple regime changes and nation-building projects. Telling such truths is part of the job description of a war president."

Richard Harwood, the Washington Post's ombudsman, wrote an important column that ran in that paper on October 30, 1993, entitled "Ruling Class Journalists." In that piece, Harwood focused on the enormous influence exercised by members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) who occupy top positions in the media: editors, publishers, reporters, commentators, columnists. These "ruling class journalists" (RCJ), said Harwood, "do not merely analyze and interpret foreign policy for the United States; they help make it." George Will, who is syndicated by the CFR-laden Washington Post, was one of the RCJ whom Harwood mentioned by name. Mr. Will has since let his membership in the CFR lapse, but he carries out his RCJ role, nonetheless.