Thursday, July 28, 2005

Good News? Yes. Monumental News? Hmm...

I woke up and saw this, this morning:

IRA says ceasing all armed activity in N.Ireland
"The Irish Republican Army guerrilla group formally announced an end to its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland from 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Thursday."
Now I never followed the IRA or any of that conflict too closely, but it seems to me that historically the IRA was probably the world's best-known and highest profile terrorist/guerilla/freedom fighter group. Although militant Islamic groups obviously took precedence in the 80's/90's/onward, the IRA was always around, stirring up trouble with random bomb attacks and assassinatiosn throughout the British Isles.

For them to finally admit that terror and bombings doesn't work, that they're going to lay down their arms and pursue "purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means."

Similar to the turn-around Libya did a couple years ago in response to the global War on Terror, perhaps this is another major sign that people are beginning to understand that political change through terrorism just isn't viable in the long run. If the IRA can lay down their arms and start to talk, maybe the end isn't far off for peace in the Middle East.

But hey, I'm an optimist...

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