I don't understand the surprise here.

Are we to assume that someone who would willfully strap a bomb to their person, and then intentionally blow it up in a crowd full of people, with the goal of killing as many innocent men, women, and children... ISN’T mentally disabled?!!

Seems to me the only difference in this case, is these women were born with the disability... the other’s have the hate thrust upon them.

good point ImNot. Its a real low point in humanity that people would exploit the mentally disabled for such an absurd goal as to kill innocent people. All for the thought that If they Kill infidels they get an express pass to "Heaven" and their 72 virgins. If you cant get some on Earth, blowing yourself wont get you any in "Heaven". I think God/Allah, Frowns upon that kind of behavior. just a thought!

Come on now. A mentally disabled child is a drag on a family in a country without decent social services; a female more so, as no one would want to marry her. So they strap a bomb on her and send her to the market so she can take out some infidels?

At least the suicide bombers that carry out their own missions have a choice, know what will happen to them.

How would you feel if the US Army used our mentally disabled to find land mines?

The news has stated that these women were mentally disabled but not to what extent. One is led to envision that they were low functioning enough to not be aware that they would be killed and blow up a bunch of other people, as they were also described as unwitting participants. As with any news story you can make what you want of these type of details.

I understand your point that anybody who willfully decides to be a suicide bomber must have some kind of mental flaw, but that is not an accurate statement. While this is a repulsive act to most of humanity the extremists see it as acceptable behavior and not as a mental illness. I appreciate that the road to becoming an extremist would obviously be mentally deranging but it is still that individual choosing to follow those beliefs and to take that action. Regardless of the experiences or life we have had in the end we are able to choose for ourselves.

It appears that these women did not have that ability. That they had been used as delivery devices and destroyed remotely by people that had decided they did not feel like dying for their cause. I see that once people adopt such a strategy that anything would be "acceptable". In that way this is not a surprise. It is just that on a gut level this seems even more disgusting. The perpetrators are cowards of a most repugnant nature.

In the end it is not so much surprising as it is another gut turning low in war.

The funny thing is, that sentence made just as much sense without the word "up".