I’m going to mention two important terrorism-related developments over the past couple of days, the IRA renouncing violence, and a “fatwa” issued against terrorism by American Islamic jurists (Islamic jurists are not clerics, but have power to interpret Islamic law, apparently).

First the IRA. For almost as long as I’ve been alive I’ve been watching news reports about IRA terrorist violence in Northern Ireland.

During the Islamic terrorism campaign against the western world, since the late-seventies, I’ve likened the IRA to the Islamic terrorists in my thoughts.

And I think the civilized world, too, likens the IRA to the Islamic terrorists.

And now, the The IRA renouces violence. The IRA has done things like this before, but this time I think it might be for real (except for some violent individuals who will keep acting alone).

At the same time, an association of American Muslim jurists (not clerics) has issued a “fatwa” or edict against certain conduct associated with terrorism.

I, and the rest of the civilized world, KEEP waiting for the major Islamic CLERICS to issue a fatwa against conduct associated with terrorism.

Maybe the clerics HAVE issued fatwas, and I just don’t know about it. But I doubt it. For example, there may be a fatwa that forbids targeting civilians.

But unless the fatwa is very detailed (like an American statute might be), terrorists can easily get around it. For example, terrorists will never admit that they target “civilians” because “all Americans are soldiers in the war against Islam, and therefore are not civilians”. Also, terrorists can claim that their “target” is the American military vehicle, and the “civilians” killed were not actually targeted, but were accidentally killed.

And so, the Fatwa must be very detailed to prevent from being a paper tiger.

Click the links above, and enjoy some good news in the early going of the aggressive counter-phase in the war against terrorism.

Yes, we’re still in the early going, in my view. Much heartache is ahead for Americans and the world, and many more invasions of our civil liberties are yet to come.

We’ll probably lose more in liberty than we gain in security, in the end, I fear.