Only the most ideological fight war as volunteers. Why do you think thousands of Qaeda or IS fighters join to fight? They do not fight for money. They fight for religion. Religion is something that bring meaning to many people's lives.
Lol I never thought I will agree with you one day on this forum.
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Agree 100% , All the foreign fighters in Syria today are motivated by religion or ideology to a lesser extent and as such they are very effective on the field, even more so than the country's regular army and some FSA units .
Religion, if not properly handled(or taken out if context) can become an opium to the masses indeed.
Out of 70 million Iran citizens only few hundreds volunteer to fight for Assad. That's why they use poor rightless migrants as cannon fodder for Assad.
Is that a bad thing ? I know that as an Israeli you obviously don't want to make favourable comments towards Iran. Just like I don't expect an Iranian, Pakistani and many muslims here for that matter to make any positive comments towards Israel(that's Taboo.lol). However that doesn't means we can see things for what they are or turn a blind eye when it doesn't suite our purpose/view.
What you just said, might be true, but then again I don't see that as a bad thing. In fact it shows Iran is smart power, and they have been making very strategic moves in the region. Why will any major power not want to use others for its national interests if possible? That's the smart thing to do. Wouldn't you rather have others fight and die for your interest than your own citizens if that was possible?
As harsh as that might sound, that's the simple truth, we don't live in a fairy tale world anyway. So I don't see how that's a bad thing to do strategically speaking. There's no morality in geopolitics, else every country have their hands dirty some way or another . So I can't blame Iran on this one. If these poor illiterate Pakistanis,Afghans,Yenenis,Iraqis,Lebanese etc are willing to go and die for a certain cause which serves Iran's interests as well, then so be it. It's not like Iran forced them, it's their choice, afterall ,they are not children anymore , as such they are responsible for their own actions .