Women fighters among Mahdi Army militia signal cleric building military

[acmavm]

might

Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004 (Sorry, a day late)

By Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9255820.htm

<snip>

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Umm Muhammad's green eyes flashed one day last week as she listened to the imam at a rundown Baghdad mosque preach about how women should be silent and unseen, traveling only "from the home to the grave."

She knew the edict didn't apply to her; the same imam had blessed her before battle when she became one of the first female commanders in rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

"Even my husband didn't know I was fighting, or he pretended not to know," Umm Muhammad, 34, said. "He tells me, `One day you're going to go and never come back.' I tell him I dream of martyrdom."

<snip>

At least 150 women in the Mahdi Army are being trained as suicide bombers, weapons experts and intelligence agents, according to a dozen female recruits and their male commanders in Baghdad and southern Shiite holy cities. Hundreds of others are sympathizers, marching in black cloaks in a stunning debut in April in the streets of Baghdad like an army of wraiths.

<snip>

Umm Muhammad, who's now seven months pregnant, received her own brigade in the early months of her pregnancy and shared the weapons expertise she calls "the only benefit" reaped from Saddam's regime. Saddam made gun training mandatory for women during the Iran-Iraq war. Umm Muhammad - who taught her soldiers how to aim a grenade launcher through a veil - has since earned the nickname "Lightning Bolt" from her impressed comrades for her sharp shooting.

<snip>

"If it's a boy, I'll name him Muqtada," she said. "But I'm hoping for a girl, so I can train her myself."
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How in the hell does anyone think we can possibly win against hatred like this?

[Doug Decker]

1. They don't want to win...

war is too profitable.

[oldcoot]

2. If the war becomes unprofitable,

we might declare victory and leave.