Ya gotta wonder, though the kind of thought processes going on here. If Bono really figues it's poverty causing terrorism, how does he explain Usama BinLaden, arguably the focal point of terrorism today, being a multi-millionire?

If he answers this point, I might be able to take the rest of his statements a tad more seriously.

Many people join al Qaeda because they experience or perceive poverty and blame it on the rich West, which to has some degree of truth to it. Of course, all that means is that bin Laden is using poor people, preying on their hatred for whatever might cause their poverty and whatever in the West that they might plausibly link it to within their limited understanding of global economics. It doesn't mean poverty causes terrorists. It means poor people are easily manipulated by terrorists to join up with terrorist causes.

I would say that poor people in some of these muslim nations see few ways out of their situation, so in turn they resort to these kind of actions..

to say they are manipulated is the same as saying the individuals in our armed forces (many of whom come from very disadvantaged areas) are manipulated by the government..

its a very good point.. if we help create a world that doesn't have as much poverty we can pull the carpet out from under the terror financiers' feet..

and as far as aids goes, every single christian in the world should be crying aloud for relief.. this disease doesn't affect just gays and others that many of us like to point the finger at.. this is killing children, and as was stated leaving many children without parents..

if we look at the human face on the crisis we are much more likely to put our politics back in our pockets..

It fascinates me about American culture that we care so much what rock stars say about important subjects. And---embarrassingly so---we Dems are maybe the worst with our fascination with the opinions of Hollywood stars.