Crusader Capitalism...

"...Finally, and most tragic, was a new European Christian identity centered around Crusader Capitalism-faith in materialism, competition and war instead of faith in God’s mercy, compassion and economic wholeness. For some in Europe, God became a concept to be used in rationalizing conquests and in winning control of land, sea and trade routes to India and Asia.

In “The Shock Doctrine, The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism,” Naomi Klein writes that many dominant U.S. corporations (patterned after Milton Friedman’s free-market revolution) and the wealthy elite have risen to power and amassed wealth by taking advantage of people who have been “shocked” and “traumatized” with horrible tragedies and disasters.

But how do these few maintain their wealth between times of tragedies and disasters? The answer is Crusader Capitalism maintains power by encouraging domestic class conflict and multiplying their wealth through imaginary enemies and foreign wars.

For the last eight years, President George W. Bush has done just this. He has reincarnated Crusader Capitalism, leaving behind in its wake bitterness and death for the many. His unilateral invasions and Middle Eastern vision, molded in the image of U.S. corporate hegemony, has depleted vital natural resources and has encouraged greater distrust.

It is little wonder that the National Intelligence Council has warned that over the next two decades, the U.S. economic power will decline. Bush’s Crusader Capitalism is partially responsible for this downturn. And yet, just as the wars of the European Crusades eventually caused some to question their worldview and embrace renaissances, I believe Bush‘s Crusader Capitalism is forcing American’s to reject a highly militant, global economic system in exchange for a more just and sustainable peace.

More at link, with good info of past religious crusades.
AlJazeera

-A