Hezbollah lost everything to fight Israel directly. Our military budget is extremely low relative to virtually every major country in the region. If we were spending 20% of the budget on supporting foreign groups fighting Israel then maybe we could debate it, but it's a tiny percentage.
It's not 20%, but it's close to 5% of our budget.
It was Qassim Suleimaini's strategy and a result of IRGC/Quds Force working very closely with Lebanese Shia from the 1980s and then with Iraqis in 2000s and Syrians/Yemeni in 2010s. Suleimani spent so much time in the field, his Arabic became flawless and he developed close relations with many of the AoR leaders, especially Hassan Nasrullah family.
Long before him, Chamran (one of our greatest defense ministers) started all this in early 80s. But I don't think Chamran meant to bring this stupid strategy into such an extreme that it becomes the focus of our national security instead of strengthening our own armed forces.
No that is not true, Iraq has always been a kind of a buffer state and ally against external pressure, even in sassanid era the Arabs of Iraq served as allies against Arabs of Levant who worked for Romans, so this is an old policy and part of traditional Iranian statecraft.
well....in the year 2020 when Sulaimani was considered worthy of assasination, this AoR strategy was seen as a tremendous success, with Iranian allies capable and deeply embedded in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Yemen. I think mistake Iran made was to see Suleimani assasination as a one-off and not as the beginning of a campaign to dismantle the AoR.
I don't get the relevance of the Sassanid era to now. Iraq was part of the Persian Empire as well. So, what is your point? I don't get the relevance at all.
You have to understand that it's all about cost analysis. Nobody cares who moans or whines about what. The Europeans and the Americans can cry all they want, that's not the matter here.
In reality the only actor of the AoR knock out are HZ. But the price paid by Israel is heavy. They will never be treated by the international community like before. Just US and other rogue states like Hungary will make deals with them.
you think 5% of our budget is going to Hezbollah / PMF / Ansarallah? that's insane. that's more than our entire military budget.
5% of our military budget, not all of our budget. I thought it was obvious what I meant.
Well one problem is that Hamas did not inform its AoR allies before launching its operation and Iran/AoR have been trying to play catchup ever since. You still saw Hezbollah fighting Israel for over a year, until it was essentially destroyed, you see Hamas still in the fight and same for the Houthis. Only the Iraqi PMU chickened out. What else do you want ? ultimately these groups have their own internal dynamics and environmental constraints.
they all fought Israel far more than Iran did and many reports say Iran advised Nasrallah to not escalate with Israel
5% of 5% = 0.25% of our GDP/overall budget
Hamas has been effectively destroyed. Gaza has been invaded. Hamas will never be what it was before October 7th. Sure, a lot of angry Palestinians that have lost their family members will be willing to join Hamas, but Hamas will never rule over Gaza again.
