http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmCwn3zOFM

(I hope this link works. If it does not, apologies. I am still not entirely familiar with Reddit.)

This is an edited series of clips from a BBC documentary about Iranian veterans from the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s who are going on pilgrimage to Iraq. Watching this while thinking "this is the male role" helps to drive the point home: these men are meant to be cannon fodder, and they died by the tens of thousands.

What helps to drive the point home for me is the woman at 2:29 who yells "I'd sacrifice my child for you!" "I'll give my 5 year old!"

Yes, that's very generous of you to say, lady