[bvw]

Thanks. Now that Macbee has brought it up, I comes to my own mind that the root and tipping-point cause of nigh all wars is religious. In our American pedogogical tradition -- up until recent decades -- they used to refer to the "causes of war" -- implying a large number, and refer to those most pivotal most forcing of war as the "proximal" cause of war.

Bosh! Pish posh and bosh! I says now. What makes people willing to risk life, limb and property -- to die for a cause? In large number, over longish, at-the-time-indeterminate periods.

Nothing less than "religion". Their deep internal beliefs.

Look to that religious impulse, marshalled in a nation, in a region, in a group -- there you find by my hypothesis the proximal, the triggering and the sustaining cause of war.

It's no easy thing for us moderns to look into that aspect -- even though it is fundamental, intrinsic and without it no cause may be found but a plethora of nonsense.

What say, is the religious founding of the Viet Nam War?

[MEG33]

I was actually only providing information about the religious wars of the 17th century...I am no historian.