Ron Paul, the founding fathers, and foreign policy

Recently I've seen quite a few statements online comparing the foreign policy positions of Ron Paul to the foreign policy positions of the founding fathers. These statements generally assert that Ron Paul is a non-interventionist in the same mold as the founding fathers: we should defend the U.S. from foreign aggression, but otherwise meddling in the affairs of foreign nations is out of the question. One such statement (which I'd link to, but that statement was later deleted by the author) read, in part:

He's consistent. War does not a conservative make in my opinion. I do think we need to defend ourselves when we believe it is nessecary, I agree with Ron Paul, . . . the kind of libertarian he is, is just like Jeffersonian, and actually more Jefferson Adams.

I appreciate the desire to support the policies of the founding fathers, but I don't think the founding fathers were as non-interventionist in their outlook as is commonly believed. In fact, Thomas Jefferson was the first president to send the United States military to the Middle East to use force to protect American commercial interests. Check out Wikipedia's history of the First Barbary War:

On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha (or Bashaw) of Tripoli demanded $225,000 from the new administration. (In 1800, Federal revenues totaled a little over $10 million.) Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, in May of 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents, but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate. Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis soon followed their ally in Tripoli.

In response, Jefferson sent a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress. Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, they did authorize the President to instruct the commanders of armed vessels of the United States to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify."

The Barbary Pirates were attacking American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean and demanding tribute--protection money, really--to stop the attacks. Jefferson chose to employ force (without a declaration of war) in the defense of America's commercial interests. Ron Paul doesn't seem very Jeffersonian when Jefferson's actual practice of foreign policy is taken into account.