Jews await the coming of the Messiah. Christians are waiting for him to come again. But in Islam, he is known as the Mahdi, and he has already come at least once.
There are few people in the West who remember the story of the most famous Mahdi. (more than 35 people have claimed to hold the title) It started around 1881 in Sudan.
A Sudanese named Muhammed Ahmed, claiming descent from the Prophet Mohammed by way of his wife, Fatima, and an acknowledged religious leader claimed the title and began a revolt to cleanse Sudan of non-believers. Sudan at that time was under British control, and nominally ruled by Egypt. The Mahdi army wrested control of Western Sudan and Darfur from their enemies and defeated a couple of English forces while doing so. The British sent General Charles Gordon to Khartoum to re-establish Anglo-Egyptian rule. The Mahdi army laid siege to Khartoum with an overwhelming force. Khartoum fell in 1884 while the large British relief column was still moving down the Nile. Muhammed Ahmed died of typhus a few months later, but he had appointed a trio of successor leaders, the foremost of whom was called the Khalifa, and they completed conquering Sudan.
At this point I want to note that the Mahdi occupies an important position within Islam. This is especially true in Shia Islam (the predominant branch in Iran today) where many believe him to be a 9th century Muhammed who went into hiding after the split into Shia and Sunni sects that came with the deaths of the Prophet’s grandsons, Hassan and Hussain. That Muhammed is the one whose emergence from exile will rescue the world from chaos and establish Islam as THE religion for the entire world. A lot of this story may sound familiar to Jews and Christians.
To return to real history; by 1898 the Mahdi Army, a mixture of fanatical mounted troops of mostly Arab descent (called Dervishes) and equally fanatic African infantry (called fuzzy-wuzzies, probably due their hair style) engaged the British sent to regain control of Sudan. The British commander was General Kitchener (Yes, the same Kitchener who was Britain’s Minister of the Army in WW I) Kitchener had about 8,000 British troops plus some 17,000 native mostly (Egyptian) soldiers. The Mahdi Army was much larger, possibly as many as 52,000 men. The British bore the brunt of the fighting, and they were equipped with artillery and Maxim machine guns. Technology defeated numbers. When the battle ended Kitchener’s forces had 48 dead and 382 wounded. The Khalifa’s army had lost 12,000 killed, 23.000 wounded, and some 5,000 were prisoners of the British.
The British continued their mission and pursued the Mahdist army for several years. They never eliminated all the fanatics, and they did have ‘boots on the ground’ as well as overwhelming technological superiority. Many fuzzy-wuzzies were armed with only knives and spears. I’m sure many readers will see parallels between the story of Muhammed Ahmed and today. Others may note that Air power, by itself, has never won a war. The main point of reviewing this history is to point out that religious wars are hard to finish. The fanaticism of followers of extreme Islam does not allow any room for compromises or negotiations. It’s a concept that is contrary to the American approach of ‘Let’s make a deal’.
Here are a few more facts that I decided to include because of media broadcasts.
Despite Iranian claims, no American Navy ships have even been damaged by Iranian attacks. The US has lost 4 F-15 strike fighters during the war. Three of them were downed by friendly fire over Kuwait. The USAF also lost an A-10 in the air and had E-3 recon and KC-135 tankers destroyed on the ground by Iranian missile and drone attacks. All the air crews were rescued. In the air, Israel and the US have each also lost about 18 reconnaissance drones. Iranian claims of greater damage, including that inflicted on military targets in Israel and the Gulf, are highly exaggerated, and a large portion of them are pure fabrication (often aided by AI).
Wetherhorn 