content: Account Deleted By User Islamists (I mean the ones fighting in the middle east) are literally in a Holy War. I think they perhaps have realized the spiritual part of war.  They battle for spiritual reasons (on top of the material ones). War as a spiritual path. Fighting for deep beliefs, inspired to fight by them. They are exclusively men. They recruit by showing the glory of the battle, the glory of dying for spiritual reasons, dying fighting for the faith. "Da'wah has never been a road lined with roses and sweet basil. The price of bringing principles to the land of reality is many torn limbs and blood." Meanwhile, the western soldier fights not even for the material wellbeing of it's country's population (not even his nation), but for the maintaining of the economical comfort. There is nothing masculine left, women can join as well, and are encouraged to do so. Purely material. It is obvious why even when they appeal to materialism and feel-goodism, they hardly recruit. Almost nobody is willing to fight for that, coupled of course with the degeneration of the population. They recruit not by showing the glory, but by listing the material goodies they will get, an appeal to egoism. "You'll go places, you'll use state of the art technology, you'll drive tanks". - This, though, is not a defense of islamists. Just keep in mind, that a religious warrior is always nobler than a modern effette soldier.