World wide empire? Examples please!
Conservatives tend to want government decreased. Don't allow yourself to be confused by labels. Just because a "Republican" holds the office that doesn't necessarily mean he is overly conservative, only more palatable to conservatives than the lib alternative. Moreover, the House and Senate have a lot more to say over both military action and welfare as they control the budget. I do agree with you that not only does government size have an inversely proportional connection to freedom and liberty, it also ultimately becomes financially unsustainable if it bloats too large. At teh moment our government is far too corpulent!
War seems to come out of nowhere, like rust that suddenly pops up on iron after a storm.
Throughout history, we have seen that war can sometimes be avoided or postponed, or its effects mitigated -- usually through a balance of power, alliances and deterrence rather than supranational collective agencies. But it never seems to go away entirely.
Just as otherwise lawful suburbanites might slug it out over silly driveway boundaries, or trivial road rage can escalate into shooting violence, so nations and factions can whip themselves up to go to war -- consider 1861, 1914 or 1939. Often, the pretexts...
Libertarians are the true conservatives.
The liberal / conservative paradigm is now a false one. Conservatism has changed. Conservatives are generally not Jeffersonians who believe in a limited federal government. They are Hamiltonians who believe in a strong federal government. Mitt Romney is a prime example of this. They want to expand the federal government through endless warfare.
The true conservatives are now libertarians.