Oh golly, don't start....

Maybe you should rephrase that to something like... 'purely to pursue self-interested goals' - it would be a little less controversial and in my mind a little closer to the truth. I'm also under the belief that wars have never been anything but for self-interest, not just 'in our days'... whether it be for financial or territorial gain, glory or respect, to irradicate perceived threat to mother country, etc etc.. my position also is that if people were truly fighting for religious reasons then they wouldn't be fighting in the first place - my belief is that one of the aforementioned (fundamentally self-interested) motives underlie all wars, even ones fought under a so-called 'religious' banner.

Anyhow, don't mind me