How about A American Foreign Legion?? Ala the French model.?

Question

With all the talk about manpower problems & a reluctance to use women in combat roles, I was thinking. The French has used the foreign legion concept to attract men from arround the world. Currently we have many immigrants who hope to earn citizen ship thru military service. With people trying every day to come here illegaly why not solve two problems at once?
A American Foreign Legion? A dedicated recruitment of foreign nationals on the French model. Cubans, mexicans Haitians, Chinese, Columbians, Nigerians, etc. All want to come here and get a green card. Skip the smugling & rafts to Florida. Sign up & we give you a citezenship in 2 years. Well??????

Answer 1

As someone who has earned his own citizenship through a combat tour, I think it's an excellent idea, with some caveats:

(1) Minimum standards of English comprehension, physical fitness, a bar to those guilty of certain felonies and war crimes. It is preposterous to extend a hand to, say, some child killer from the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda or a Tamil Tiger from Sri Lanka.

(2) Same as the Legion - maximum size of the unit to be no more than a Division, all officers and senior NCOs to seed the unit MUST be American. Unit should also be assigned overseas, with NO CONUS POSTINGS, ever.

(3) Minimum enlistment MUST be six years - two years is just enough time for them to get trained and then be lost to the unit. Even the Legion (which used to have a five year contract) now has a three year term of service. Two years is just too short.

Mind you, a smaller version of this program is already in effect; members of certain NATO militaries are eligible for citizenship if they enlist in the Army for six years. I've met a German Special Forces lieutenant and a senior German Infantry NCO this way (both experienced, seasoned career soldiers serving in the United States Army, literally starting from the bottom). It's crazy. The only saving grace is they rise fast.

And really, this is NOT a solution for illegal immigration. Very few out of the total swarming over American borders would be both interested and eligible for such a deal. Many of the immigrants are under the control of criminal organizations who force them to work off their debt, or are criminals themselves.

The idea for an American Foreign Legion was made by COL David Hackworth a while back, and it's a sound concept. But it is certainly not a solution for the border control problem America faces today.

Answer 2

I see where you're coming from but I see a few potential problems. The first being is that it's just too mercenary for Americans to accept. Serving in the armed forces has always been a matter of patriotism and pride in this nation and I for one would not want to see that change. Secondly, while there is merit in granting citizenship for someone who serves, I would be afraid there would be too much of a problem holding a large number of foreign nationals to the same standard of conduct we expect from our troops. I would expect many more incidents like the few attrocities that have taken place in Iraq in recent history. It seems to me that there is a collective spirit with it's own core values in our military as it is today. I would be afraid we'd lose that with a force of entirely foreign troops.

Answer 3

for the reason that military equipment is VERY expensive, most are hi tech....it take a minimum of HS grad to operate a piece of military equipment costing millions of dollars.. for the foot ground grunt, knowledge of GPS, mapping, counter insurgency, and other hi tech gadgets in the modern war...we have this but very bad leadership in the white house

Answer 4

The problem with that is that they would have next to no reason to be willing to die for the nation. They would simply be fighting for their own personal gain (mercenary).

Answer 5

why should we have aliens fighting for our country when we have alot of men and women wanting to fight for our country already

Answer 6

In theory it sounds good...but it wouldn't be a good idea.