Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

And this is a very, this is a very important point, because the book also talks about the reputation of stain that, uh, this, in a way, uh, siding with the state elites inflicted on the Shaabi, on the popular reputation of the PMF, because they also want to portray themselves as a popular movement, one, one, one by the people.

I remember when I interviewed the late, um, uh, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

It was, uh, it was in 2019 or 2018, and I was asking him back then all of these questions about state integration and where he sees like the PMF fitting, and I remember very clearly how he told me that the end is not Hashd al-Shaabi, it's not the government mobilizing, it's the people's mobilization.

Mm.

Yeah.

Um, let me ask you a question about, you know, kind of the...

A very specific question, and that is about you, you place a lot of, uh, emphasis throughout the narrative on the Muhandis and, uh, the role that he played in unifying and kind of providing some kind of leadership structure for these disparate groups.

And of course, he was assassinated in 2020, along with Qasem Soleimani.

Like I said, almost seven years after the Iraqi parliament voted for the removal of foreign troops, demanded the removal of foreign troops after the assassination of, uh, Commander General, uh, Qasem Soleimani and, um, Abu, uh...

Ah, my God, how can I forget his name? Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Uh, right? Al-Muhandis.

Uh-

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, yeah.

Yes, guys.

Thank you so much for correcting me.

When I say that the US treats Iraq like a colony, I am not exaggerating.

Let's look at what happened in 2020 when during Trump's first term as president, he assassinated not only the top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, but also the Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were in Iraq at the time.

The U.S. military assassinated them with a drone strike in January 2020.

And al-Muhandis was the commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, the PMF, which are known in Arabic, sometimes referred to as the Al-Hashid Al-Shaabi.