The Cato Institute is not conservative, it is libertarian. For the record, they are a very reputable outfit in this category, and I often use them as a source. I have no doubt that Don would eat live bugs before he'd agree with most of the rest of what the Cato Institute says.
Many libertarians and a lot of conservatives were opposed to our going into Iraq. The libertarian ideal is political isolationism, or at least neutrality. This was, historically, the ideal of our Founding Fathers as well. Jerry Pournelle also laments our tendency away from Republic and towards Empire, and he is not alone on the Right.
My opinion is that in our current age of WMD and worldwide access, isolationism works a lot better in theory than in practice, and that I don't think we have a lot of choice in some areas, but that's a discussion in its own right.
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