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(AP) -- When Fulla and her friend Yasmeen awoke for morning prayer, it wasn't the familiar sound of the call from the minaret which woke them, it was the drone of tiny Apache gunships.
Fulla's hometown of Tadmur, Syria, has long been an enclave of secular westernization in the otherwise Islamic regime, where up until recently, the blond-haired and blue-eyes citizenry were free to erect dreamhomes, wear hot-pants, and even participate freely in Syria's fledgling manned space program.
However, in recent weeks, a corporate fatwa on the city has dictated that all women and girls under 18" high be required to adopt the traditional abaya and hijab of Muslim women.
The edict, from fundamentalist clerics, has angered womens' rights groups, Amnesty International, and the Mattel Corporation.
"What we're looking at in Tadmur, and all across the Middle East," stated Mattel's spokesperson Mimsy Smythe-Rubenstein from her corner office high above Manhattan's Pose-able Figure District, "is a complete rejection and systematic repression of the freedoms and values we as a society, and as a corporation, take for granted. There was a time, not long ago, when the little girls of Syria could drive their pink Corvettes or brush the purple manes of their show-ponies with impunity. Now the best they can hope for is fully-subsidized post-secondary education in medicine or education. We had hoped, as we enter the 21st Century, that Syrians would be learning the advantages of establishing a strong credit rating, casual dating, and keeping current with wireless technology."
Smythe-Rubenstein tugs on the hem of her pink power-suit. As a soldier in this all-too-familiar clash of cultures, she's battle hardened, if not perfectly manicured.
"This isn't about the freedom to sing-along with small plastic karaoke disks into a tiny, glitter-covered microphone; this is about the right to make choices, for women around the globe."
Meanwhile, as dawn approached in the Middle East, in the nearby Iraqi city of Ar Rutbah, the troops of the US 3rd Miniature Army prepared for a tactical strike against Tadmur.
One GI, who wished to only be identified as "Joe", stated that he understood the risks associated with an operation that the world community has come to decry in recent months.
"I know a lot of the weaker countries like Canada and France haven't been behind what we're doing here,", stated the diminutive soldier as he reconfigured the array of his 'Johnny 7' tactical assault rifle, "but we can't allow this kind of hatred to grow. It's not just a hatred of America, but of freedom in general; the freedom for girls like Barbie and Skipper to wear make-up, experiment with Ken in various combinations, and to cut their hair knowing full-well it doesn't always grow back."
"Joe" is almost unrecognizable as a human figure, as laden with accessories as he is; he wears a stiff nylon camo jumpsuit, real telescopic night-vision goggles, and a baffling assortment of tools and side-arms. "Joe", a self-described "career-Sergeant", has been a soldier for far longer than his rugged, youthful looks suggest. He is one of the military's tried and trusted breed of 'lone-wolf' special operatives, just as familiar with rappelling from the top of a chest of drawers as crossing the entire width of an in-ground pool without needing to breathe. But "Joe" admits to being tired these days.
"At this point in my life," he reflects, "I expected to be spending more time at home. I have a wife, three kids, some sea-monkeys. I figured by now I'd be restoring the broken Batmobile I got at a garage sale on my last leave, teaching recreational skydiving, or tending my own farm on horseback. But duty calls, and I go where I'm most needed."
As the Apaches began to hoist themselves airborne, "Joe" and his squad saddled-up for their mission.
"I've seen it all,", shouted "Joe" above the din of the whirling engines, "Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Vietnam, Laos, Guyana, Somalia. But this is the most important theater of operations as far as I'm concerned. This isn't about winning hearts and minds; this is about freedom of choice. The choice to buy American!"
And as the Apache lifted skyward, "Joe" shouted one final request; "Hey, when I mentioned Laos and Panama? Can you forget I said that?"
Back in Tadmur, Fulla and Yasmeen, fully dressed in their optional camo outfits, arm themselves with ancient-looking AK-47s, which were formerly hidden in the folds of they prayer rugs. It's not lost on the two girls that the weapons are made by Mattel. Yasmeen busies herself by stuffing tiny glazed cakes into burlap sacks as the pair prepare to seek safe hiding-places.
Yasmeen says that since the raids began in other parts of Syria, the bulbs required to heat the cake-ovens haven't been as easy to obtain, and that she needs to bake as many as the small boxes of ingredients allow.
"Sometimes I think it would be easier to just put the roller-skates back on, re-arch my feet for high heels, and re-inflate the hot-tub," she states in a hushed tone as the choppers approach, "but then I think of Fulla and the rest of my friends, and of our whole way of life. I think that perhaps freedom is more about the right to choose what I put on my head, and what to make of my own destiny, than about having my string pulled by an infidel."
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