Lobo and The Handsmaid's Tale

First off, The Handsmaid's tale is one of the best books I have ever read for school, and certainly one of the best I have read for anything else. Really good, weird, but good.

I gotta say that the Repulic of Gilead is probably the most terrifying future that i could possibly imagine. The severe oppression and extreme limiting of rights just seems like the worst possible outcome. The fact that they must live in constant terror that they will be discovered for having the slightest fault, or that if they attempt to take even the slightest pleasure they could be taken by the Eyes is horrific. Personally i would do almost anything for my freedoms and life, so to me the Republic of Gilead just seems so horriblefor the limits on freedoms. I mean technecally thats an amazing way to keep the populace under control, but it still would be a fate worse than death. i think that Atwood wrote this book to advise against religeous fanatacism. I think that her creation of such a powerful government and implementation of such harse regulations upon the citizens of her novel are her way of exaggerating (and thus protesting) the strict rules that the bible would have one follow.
What confuses me the most however is where did the "army" that caused the coup come from? Maybe I just need to read farther, but it hasn't said anything so far. I think that they must be some sort of extremist Christian cult, but i don't see how they the leaders of said army would manage to arm and organize that large of a movement, especially because so violent a movement would require huge amounts of recruits. There is another issue: where did all the recruits for that army come from? Also who were the leaders and organizers of the coup? I think that they are the people who became Commanders, or maybe top Eyes, but who were they back when the US was still kicking? Another question i had was where is the real US army while the coup was occuring. It seems that there would certainitly be a few defectors, but there is no way that the entirety of the army would defect. Maybe the trained soldiers were defeated by the zealous mob? Not particularly feasible, but possible i suppose.
*BEGINNING OF SPOILERISH BIT*
Moira is a difficult character to figure out. For a while she was my favorite character. I loved her from the period of her escape, which was awesome, right up until she was in the Commander's secret club. Now i find it hard to enjoy her character. She seems so broken and tamed compared to what she used to be like. I really didn't expect to see her again in that context. It was bizzare, and it felt like she was a really different character.
*END OF SPOILERISH BIT*
Here's anothe rquestion i had, even though everyone has tried to make everything suicide proof. No knives really, nothing to hang yourselves from, etc. If people really wanted to kill themselves why don't they just bite their tounges and drown in blood? Atwood keeps hinting at Offred wanting to kill herself, but if she really wanted to it would be so easy to off herself. Suicide is still always an option. Or maybe she hangs on for the hope of meeting Luke and her daughter again?
Ya this aught to be a good fun essay to write. Should be good. Good choice of book Lavender! Thanks! we should maybe read Brave New World to see kind of the opposite world. Maybe a good thing to consider.