many need to try to fulfill their desires before they realise they can not be fulfilled but are constant. many who find religion go through this. so it's quite probably a necessary part in finding oneself. and therefore it is fruitless for those that have gone through it to say to those that have not that they need not go through it when it could be argued that you make that claim because of your experience of going through it.

According to Buddhism desire is the secondary (some say primary) cause of all suffering. Can we unlearn to desire things? Some desired are hardwired surely. If we desire to get rid of desire ..well..

Desire creates attachment and attachment creates suffering as nothing is permanent, the impermanent nature of it generates pain and suffering. One can choose to not attach themselves to the fruits of life yet simultaneously enjoy them in their fleeting temporary existence. It's what makes life life. Awareness allows us to move past our basic primitive instincts and make a conscious decision, a conscious decision here is to not identify and attach yourself with the things you desire.

Desiring to reach spiritual enlightenment thereby getting rid of desire is not quite so different from desiring to virtually grasp onto and own anything else in the world rather it seems that desire to reach your inner being can act as a catalyst towards the path to ones own spiritual growth, which is why many see it as a sign of spiritual progress... this intellectual conceptualized idea of desiring the attainment of spiritual enlightenment woud only get someone this far because it continues to rest on the notion that we are incomplete, and something else is needed to complete us. how funny it is when all the divinity you seek in the rest of the world is resting there right there within you.. continuously waiting to be expressed.

Pop will eat itself.

Desire, like fear, is a positive practical attribute that needs to be used wisely.

It needs to be controlled as does fear. Agreed.