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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

> Like I said in my original post, no one wants war or conflict.  Sane
people will always look for peaceful solutions, but in the end, to put
down the evilbadguy, they will fight or they will die.  I don't think
> there is a culture/human group on Earth that would not fight to survive.

Fighting to survive is NOT the same as aggressing against others. OF COURSE 
most people will defend themselves if attacked. It IS human nature to defend 
one's self. Defending yourself isn't aggressing or starting a  war I was 
disagreeing with your statement:

"We are a warring species, plain and simple.  We ask, and if we do
not get, then we demand, and if we do not get, then we take by force.  I
believe this to be true of all humanity, whether that human is a
paleolithic tribe or NATO. "

To me, that statement is completely at odds with your statement that 'nobody 
wants war'. If nobody wanted war, we wouldn't have war. Obviously some 
people find it an acceptable thing to move troops into other countries and 
wage war.  There are people...maybe the majority... who have never stolen 
from other people. Many (most?) people have never started a physical fight 
with another person. The fact that so many people do NOT display aggressive, 
war-like tendencies proves to me that we are NOT universally a warring 
species. That was the point I was trying (unsuccessfully, it seems) to make.

It is not the nature of some (most?) people to aggressively attack or steal 
from others, therefore it can't be a species-wide trait.  I'd go as far as 
to say that Evilbullybadguys and the people who follow them are the 
minority. What percentage of people in the world have fought in a war? What 
percentage of the US population joins the military (1/100th?) Perhaps that's 
the percentage of the population with the 'warrior gene'? Evilbullybadguys 
are very disruptive, can attract or conscript others to help them, and are 
generally seen by the majority of the world to BE Evilbullybadguys. The fact 
that we see them as an aberration tells me that most people aren't like 
them.

Lynn Wigglesworth