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In a recent TV interview, Hanan Al-Fatlawi, a Shi'ite Iraqi MP of the State of Law Coalition, said: "I will send my son [to fight] only if the people for whom he is fighting appreciate this, and they will not ululate while my son is slaughtered." She further said: "It would be a stupid mistake to send our sons to this holocaust. The interview was broadcast on the Iraqi Hona Baghdad TV channel and posted on the Internet on September 27, 2014.
Following are excerpts:
Interviewer: The decision to stop the aerial bombardment of terrorist-controlled areas – was it a humanitarian decision or a political one?
Hanan Al-Fatlawi: It was a political decision - an unwise decision, a poorly considered decision, an improvised decision, and a catastrophic decision in my view.
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Where is your war now? Is it in the desert?! Your war is in Saqlawiyah, Falluja, Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra, Al-Dhuluiya… These are all cities. Your war is being waged in the cities. By declaring a halt to aerial bombardment of cities, even though they are controlled by ISIS, you are giving ISIS a free pass to do whatever it wants in the cities.
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What is our sole advantage over ISIS? ISIS has advanced weaponry, while we have standard weapons. The ideology of ISIS is that they want to die, while we want to live. We want to win so that we can live. ISIS has the support of the local population, while for our soldiers, the area is totally unfamiliar. Our only advantage over ISIS is that they do not have air cover while we do. When we voluntarily relinquished our sole advantage, we effectively invited ISIS [into the cities]. We told them that we would not be using our air cover. That's why this decision was catastrophic, poorly planned, unwise, and political.
[…]
Interviewer: With regard to the U.S.-led international support in the war against ISIS – are they serious in their intention to take out ISIS in Iraq and Syria?
Hanan Al-Fatlawi: I doubt this. I hope they are serious, because we do need international support. ISIS is not only the enemy of Iraq. It is the enemy of the entire world. Iraq lacks the weapons and the logistic means to win the war against ISIS. We need international support. The international support has been belated. It was needed at the very outset.
As to the question whether they are serious or not, I'd like to ask a question: When ISIS entered Iraq, seized the Iraqi army's weapons, and transferred it to Al-Raqqah in Syria – didn't the Americans see this? Didn't their satellites see this? When a goat goes from here to there, they film it, and post the video on the Internet, saying: "Our satellites filmed a goat taken by ISIS."
Interviewer: They claim that if they had suddenly intervened, there would have been Iraqi objections…
Hanan Al-Fatlawi: That's not true. The government called for their help. It asked them for intelligence.
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Interviewer: As an Iraqi citizen, will you welcome back the American ground troops, under the pretext of fighting terror?
Hanan Al-Fatlawi: No, I will not.
Interviewer: Even if we need this?
Hanan Al-Fatlawi: If they had only provided us with intelligence throughout the decade in which Iraqis were slaughtered by the thousands… The American did not lift a finger. If only they had provided us with intelligence and arms… To this day, they give us a hard time with regard to arms supplies. They provide us with no intelligence, no weapons, no support. They don't let you cooperate with other countries, and they don't help you seal the borders, but all of a sudden, they want to send ground troops… What for? We have no shortage of manpower. We have a logistical shortage in weapons and information.
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Can you explain to me how Mosul fell in the blink of an eye? In some [Sunni] areas, the local tribes are still in a deep slumber, and they even participated in some of the [ISIS] massacres. [Sunni] tribesmen participated in the Saqlawiyah massacre. I heard this from the soldiers. Tribesmen participated in the massacre at Camp Speicher as well. The people of the [Sunni] provinces should enlist. Why should I send someone from Diwaniya to be slaughtered there in that holocaust? To die for what?
Interviewer: As soon as a soldier volunteers for the Iraqi army, he represents all of Iraq, and he can be sent to fight as far away as the border of Israel. Once a soldier, he represents Al-Anbar, Mosul, Basra…
Hanan Al-Fatlawi: I, Hanan, am a woman. I am not a man. I am not required to become a soldier, but I am prepared to don a uniform and take up arms, and go defend and help liberate Al-Anbar, and I don't even mind if I am killed. But I have one condition, and I say this on behalf of every mother from Diwaniya, Hillah, Najaf, or Nasiriya, who lost their sons in Speicher and Saqlawiya. We hold the [Sunni] provinces in the highest regard, under one condition: I will send my son, only if the people for who he is fighting appreciate this, and they will not ululate while my son is slaughtered. Their women ululate and pass out candy while our sons are slaughtered.
The leaders of their tribes should declare: May Allah reward you, we thank you and your religious leaders for sending your children to liberate our provinces. I don't want to see [Mosul Governor] Athil Al-Nujaifi and others saying: We do not want Shiites to liberate our provinces. If these tribes collaborate in the killing of our sons – we will have none of it]. It would be a stupid mistake to send our sons to this holocaust.
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