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All of this verbiage to say "I oppose the war but I still want to say I am conservative."

To which my only response is: fine by me.

I have thought from the very beginning of this debate that the anti-war folks - including those who consider themselves "left-wing" - sounded more conservative than the pro-war folks.

Similarly, I advocated war against Iraq, and I recognize that this wasn't a very "conservative" position. It was a radical one.

So what?

"So what" indeed! While the Rockwellians and the NROniks debate who's the "real" conservative, I'll continue to make judgements based on my own thoughts, thank you very much. I tend to have more in common with the NRO guys, but that doesn't mean I must march in lockstep with everything they espouse. Call me a freakin' neocon, paleocon, jurassocon, modernocon, who cares?

One note on the author's claim to HL Mencken as a distinguished founder of LewRockwell philosophy: As a Baltimoron, I have a special place in my heart for Mencken. By far, one of the most gifted and entertainingly ascerbic wits this nation has ever produced. But if the paleos want to shed the anti-Semite label, they'll have to do better. Mencken's personal letters, examined after his death, reveal him to have been a Jew hater of the most virulent kind. It is his glaring flaw, in my opinion.

I have thought from the very beginning of this debate that the anti-war folks - including those who consider themselves "left-wing" - sounded more conservative than the pro-war folks.

Similarly, I advocated war against Iraq, and I recognize that this wasn't a very "conservative" position. It was a radical one.

Thanks for your Frank admission. No matter how you slice it, Wilsonian imperialism is simply not Conservative.