How many soldiers go into battle with a smile on their face?
How many have fond memories of a war in which perhaps a million people were killed?
Meet Mehdi Talati. Aged just 15, he took up arms after Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded his homeland, Iran, 35 years ago.
The attack, on 22 September 1980, sparked the Iran-Iraq War, which did not end for eight years. Saddam had promised a whirlwind victory, but he had reckoned without the intense religious devotion of many Iranians toward their new revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
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