189 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
189 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 5)
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<p><script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
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function swtchon(nav){document[nav].src="http://www.catb.org/~esr/graphics/aim-on.png"};
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function swtchoff(nav){document[nav].src="http://www.catb.org/~esr/graphics/aim-off.png"};
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</script></p>
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<p>Changes are deliberately not marked. Read the whole thing, this is<br />
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a final pre-publication draft. Most of the changes from version 4<br />
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are deletions of excess verbiage.</p>
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<p>Counting email, this now reflects approximately 200 comments from<br />
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across the blogosphere. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.<br />
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Since this process has to close sometime, I’m declaring that there<br />
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wuill be at most one pre-publication draft.</p>
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<p>I will post a fair copy of the final version. For legal purposes,<br />
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this work is ©2002 by Eric S. Raymond. Email me for distribution<br />
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terms — I’m not especially interested in making money from it, but I<br />
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want some artistic control of how it’s used.</p>
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<p>However, this may not happen for a week, as I am about to go on<br />
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the Linux Lunacy Caribbean cruise.</p>
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<p>Brian O’Connell has supplied this excellent button for<br />
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JavaScript-aware browsers:<br />
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<img name="aim" width="100" height="40" border="0"<br />
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src="http://www.catb.org/~esr/graphics/aim-off.png"<br />
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onmouseover="swtchon('aim')" onmouseout="swtchoff('aim')"<br />
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alt="Click to Read" title="Click to Read"/></p>
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<p>And Erica from Sperari has suppiled a very tasteful static button:<br />
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<img name="aim-thumb-button.png" border="0"<br />
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src="http://www.catb.org/~esr/graphics/aim-button-thumb.jpg" alt='AIM button' /></p>
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<p>These buttons will be included with the final version.</p>
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<hr />
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<p>WHEREAS, the year since the terrible events of 9/11 has exposed<br />
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the vacuity and moral confusion of all too many of the thinkers,<br />
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politicians, and activists operating within conventional political<br />
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categories;</p>
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<p>WHEREAS, the Left has failed us by succumbing to reflexive<br />
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anti-Americanism; by apologizing for terrorist acts; by propounding<br />
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squalid theories of moral equivalence; and by blaming the victims of<br />
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evil for the act of evil;</p>
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<p>WHEREAS, the Right has failed us by pushing `anti-terrorist’<br />
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measures which bid fair to be both ineffective and prejudicial to the<br />
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central liberties of a free society; and in some cases by rhetorically<br />
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descending to almost the same level of bigotry as our enemies;</p>
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<p>WHEREAS, even many of the Libertarians from whom we expected more<br />
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intelligence have retreated into a petulant isolationism, refusing to<br />
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recognize that, at this time, using the state to carry the war back to<br />
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the aggressors is our only practical instrument<br />
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of self-defense;</p>
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<p>WE THEREFORE ASSERT the following convictions as the premises of<br />
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the anti-idiotarian position:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>
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<p>THAT Western civilization is threatened with the specter of mass death<br />
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perpetrated by nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons placed in the<br />
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hands of terrorists by rogue states;</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>THAT the terrorists and their state sponsors have declared and<br />
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are pursuing a war not against the vices of Western civilization but<br />
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against its core virtues: against the freedom of thought and speech<br />
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and conscience, against the life of reason; against the equality of<br />
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women, against pluralism and tolerance; against, indeed, all the<br />
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qualities which separate civilized human beings from savagery,<br />
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slavery, and fanaticism;</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>THAT no adjustments of American or Western foreign policy, or<br />
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concessions to the Palestinians, or actions taken against<br />
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globalization, or efforts to alleviate world poverty,<br />
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are of more than incidental interest to these terrorists;</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>THAT, upon their own representation, they will not by dissuaded from<br />
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their violence by any surrender less extreme than the imposition of Islam<br />
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and shari’a law on the kaffir West;</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>THAT, as said terrorists have demonstrated the willingness to use<br />
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civilian airliners as flying bombs to kill thousands of innocent<br />
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people, we would commit a vast crime of moral negligence if we<br />
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underestimated the scope of their future malice even<br />
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<em>without</em> weapons of mass destruction;</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>THAT they have sought, and on plausible evidence found,<br />
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alliance with rogue states such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea;<br />
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states that are known to have active programs working towards the<br />
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development and delivery of weapons of that would multiply the<br />
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terrorists’ ability to commit atrocities by a thousandfold;</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>THAT Saddam Hussein poses a particularly clear and present<br />
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danger in combination with them, a danger demonstrated by his known<br />
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efforts to develop nuclear weapons, his use of chemical weapons even<br />
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on his own population, his demonstrated willingness to commit<br />
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aggression against peaceful neighbors, and his known links to the<br />
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Islamist terror network in Palestine and elsewhere.</p>
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</li>
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</ol>
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<p>RE DECLARE that both the terrorists and their state<br />
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sponsors have made themselves outlaws from the moral community of mankind,<br />
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to be dealt with as rabid dogs are.</p>
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<p>WE FURTHER AFFIRM that the `root cause’ of Islamo-fascist terrorism<br />
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lies in the animating politico-religious ideas of fundamentalist Islam<br />
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and not in any signicant respect elsewhere, and that a central aim of<br />
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the war against terror must be to displace and discredit those<br />
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animating ideas.</p>
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<p>WE REJECT, as a self-serving power grab by the least trustworthy<br />
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elements of our own side, the theory that terrorist depredations can<br />
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be effectively prevented by further restrictions on the right of free<br />
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speech, or the right of peacable assembly, or the right to bear<br />
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arms in self-defense; and we strenuously oppose police-state measures<br />
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such as the imposition of national ID cards or airport-level<br />
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surveillance of public areas;</p>
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<p>IN GRAVE KNOWLEDGE that the state of war brings out the worst in<br />
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both individual human beings and societies, we reject the alternative<br />
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of ceding to the world’s barbarians the exclusive privilege of<br />
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force;</p>
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<p>WE SUPPORT the efforts of the United States of America, its allies,<br />
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and the West to hunt down and capture or kill individual members<br />
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of the Islamo-fascist terror network;</p>
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<p>WE SUPPORT speedy American and allied military action against the<br />
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rogue states that support terrorism, both as a means of alleviating<br />
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the immediate threat and of deterring future state sponsorship of<br />
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terrorism by the threat of war to the knife.</p>
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<p>WE SUPPORT, in recognition of the fact that the military and police<br />
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cannot be everywhere, efforts to meet the distributed threat with a<br />
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distributed response; to arm airline pilots, and to recognize as well<br />
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the ordinary citizen’s right and duty to respond to terrorist<br />
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aggression with effective force.</p>
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<p>WE SUPPORT, as an alternative greatly preferable to future<br />
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nuclear/chemical/biological blackmail of the West, the forcible<br />
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overthrow of the governments of Iraq and of other nations that combine<br />
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sponsorship of terrorism with the possession of weapons of mass<br />
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destruction; and the occupation of those nations until such time as<br />
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the root causes of terrorism have been eradicated from their<br />
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societies.</p>
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<p>WE DEFINE IDIOTARIANISM as the species of delusion<br />
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<em>within</em> the moral community of mankind that gives<br />
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aid and comfort to terrorists and tyrants operating outside it.</p>
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<p>WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Left — the moral blindness that<br />
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refuses to recognize that free markets, individual liberty, and<br />
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experimental science have made the West a fundamentally better place<br />
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than any culture in which jihad, ‘honor killings’, and female genital<br />
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mutilation are daily practices approved by a stultifying religion.</p>
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<p>WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Right — whether it manifests as<br />
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head-in-the-sand isolationism or as a a Christian-chauvinist political<br />
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agenda that echoes the religious absolutism of our enemies.</p>
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<p>WE ARE MEMBERS OF A CIVILIZATION, and we hold that civilization<br />
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to be worth defending. We have not sought war, but we will fight it<br />
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to the end. We will fight for our civilization in our thoughts, in<br />
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our words, and in our deeds.</p>
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<p>WE HAVE AWAKENED; we have seen the face of evil in the acts of the<br />
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Bin Ladens and Husseins and Arafats of the world; we have seen through<br />
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the lies and self-delusions of the idiotarians who did so much to<br />
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enable and excuse their evil. We shall not flinch from our duty to<br />
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confront that evil.</p>
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<p>WE SHALL DEMAND as citizens and voters that those we delegate to<br />
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lead pursue the war against terror with an unflagging will to victory<br />
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and all means necessary — while remaining always mindful that we<br />
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must not become what we fight;</p>
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<p>WE SHALL REMEMBER that the West’s keenest weapons are reason and the<br />
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truth; that we must shine a pitiless light on the lies from which<br />
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terrorist hatred is built; and that we must also be vigilant against<br />
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the expedient lie from our own side, lest our victories become tainted<br />
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and hollow, sowing trouble for the future.</p>
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<p>WE HAVE FAITH that we are equal to these challenges; we shall not<br />
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be paralyzed by fear of the enemy, nor yet by fear of ourselves;</p>
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<p>WE SHALL SHED the moral cowards and the appeasers and the<br />
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apologists; and we shall fight the barbarians and fanatics, and we<br />
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<em>shall</em> defeat them. We shall defeat them in war, crushing<br />
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their dream of dominion; and we shall defeat them in peace, using our<br />
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wealth and freedoms to win their women and children to civilized ways,<br />
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and ultimately wiping their diseased and virulent ideologies from the<br />
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face of the Earth.</p>
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<p>THIS WE SWEAR, on the graves of those who died at the World Trade<br />
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Center; and those who died in the Sari Club in Bali; and those who<br />
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died on U.S.S. Cole; and indeed on the graves of all the nameless<br />
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victims in the Middle East itself who have been slaughtered by<br />
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terrorism and rogue states:</p>
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<p>YOU SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN.</p>
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<pre>
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Eric S. Raymond
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17 October 2002
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____________________
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(your signature here)
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</pre>
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<p></p>
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<p><a href="http://enetation.co.uk/comments.php?user=esr&commentid=83247234">Blogspot comments</a></p>
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