Thread: Very Disturbing Article about soldiers

A Military Path to Citizenship

NCPA

Published: 10-23-06



By inviting foreigners to join the U.S. armed forces in exchange for a promise of citizenship after a four-year tour of duty, we could continue to attract some of the world's most enterprising, selfless and talented individuals, say Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution..



In the just-concluded fiscal year, the military met most of its recruiting and retention goals. But this was done only by relaxing age and aptitude restrictions, allowing in more individuals with criminal records and greatly increasing the number of recruiters and advertising dollars. The logic of these measures cannot be pushed much further:

The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, has just forecast that U.S. commitments in Iraq may remain at their current level until 2010.
With most soldiers and Marines already on a third or even fourth deployment since Sept. 11, 2001, it's doubtful that the all-volunteer force can withstand such a commitment at its current size.
Even if it could, it's unfair to ask so much of so few for so long.
Some might object on moral grounds, arguing that it is wrong to rely on "mercenaries" and to use such incentives to get prospective immigrants to fight. Boot and O'Hanlan disagree:

For one thing, the United States already relies on tens of thousands of real mercenaries -- the security contractors the U.S. government employs from Colombia to Iraq to make up for lack of troops.
Immigrants who enrolled in our armed forces would be more valuable because they would be under military discipline and motivated by more than just a paycheck.
Source: Max Boot and Michael O'Hanlon, "A

Military Path to Citizenship," Washington Post, October 19, 2006.

This is a real world implementation of military objectives. There will be some glue, some duct tape, and some innovative policies to project the U.S. empire according to our global interests. There is no going back to a metaphorical Kansas, either for us or for the world.

Rather than be spooked by all this, we should strive to keep the citizenry educated as to what our government does in our name.

sounds like the Roman Empire before it crumbled.
Here is a great idea that I know that some will disagree with, how about reinstating the draft.

it may be a convenient way to get recruits, but I think that aliens who join the military for the big "prize" of citizenship, are doing it for the wrong reason... the mercenary reason which is money.... pay them, give them perhaps "legal alien/guest worker" status BUT DON'T provide citizenship...

in the draft days they would not even seriously consider immigrants UNTIL AND UNLESS they FIRST became citizens.... during my 4 years of ROTC I could NOT join boot camp between Sophomore and Junior years BECAUSE I was not a citizen... I had to wait until the end of ROTC years to do so...

FURTHERMORE the reason for having MERCENARIES is precisely to avoid US CITIZENS from doing this dirty work.... so making them citizens nullifies the existence or justification for mercenaries.... how about a new US FOREIGN LEGION?

If anyone wants to have the likes of what crosses our border illegally picking up a weapon and PROTECTING AMERICANS.......they've got rocks in their noggins.