Root-cause? I wonder if we've ever been further from - wanting to assess the prospects for the world / our role in that, in any truthful way. We would have to be willing to alter some of our habits, to even begin to plot some course away from the present consumption habits and the theology-wars.

And even these are not really about any God: they are about Having/Not-having the means for a decent life, not an extravagant one. The God-stuff is merely the habit of centuries: an excuse to kill for vengeance of forgotten ancestors - because you lack the honesty and guts to say:

I want a little of what *You* have too-much of, in exchange for *My* not making your life hell in the ways which (even.. I) *Can*.

Is it any more complex an unfaced root-issue than that?


I might be idealistic...but I do think the issue is more complex than the simple cash issue.

(Marlowe above, in a very humorous way) proves this via his cite of Kurwait attitudes.)

But I think you are close. Money (and power) are important. But the other aspect is freedom. The US has repeatedly propped up figureheads solely to protect American interests (hell, Marlowe is asking why he haven't done that in Kurwait).

In effect, we tell people they can live any way they want, as long as American interests are met. (And when they aren't met, American guns and armies seem to get used somehow.)

We (Americans) maintain that freedom is worth more than money...why do we assume that others do not feel this way?