Should a United States Foreign Legion be formed?

Question

Whereas, a United States foreign legion similar to the French Foreign Legion would be a

welcome addition to our already strong military, and

Whereas, a United States foreign legion would be able to mitigate the number of American

casualties in Afghanistan, and

Whereas, the Department of Immigration and Naturalization is currently overloaded with those

seeking citizenship, and

Whereas, a United States foreign legion would mitigate this overload, and

Whereas, there is no greater way for one to earn United States citizenship than to serve

honorably in the United States Military; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by this Student Congress assembled that the United States Foreign Legion be formed.

Answer 1

Well regulated and run with American officers, it could be worth exploring.

Answer 2

I explored this idea in a graduate school paper some years ago, but I always thought it was rather cynical.

If you read Donald Rumsfeld's article in Foreign Affairs, that came out around Summer 2002, he advocates a de facto foreign legion approach, by lauding the way the initial campaign in Afghanistan was fought, using a combination of SF and CIA paramilitary units on the ground, leading indigenous proxy forces, and using our overwhelming technological superiority in space and air platforms to deliver tremendous firepower.

Also, it should be noted that the US Army already has a rather legionnaire feel to it - we already have many immigrants serving in the military as a shortcut to citizenship. Even when I was in the Army, many years ago, my basic training company had more than a few Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans and other foreign nationals who were serving in the military to acquire US citizenship.

The French Foreign Legion was formed explicitly with the aim of allowing the French government to launch military expeditions that wouldn't be democratically supported if the French people had to pay with their own blood for that kind of adventurism. If a democracy wants to use force, but perceives that its own people don't support the cause enough to tolerate casualties, that to me is a signal that such a use of force is ill-advised.

I don't think there's a worse message we could send to the world right now - that Americans are comfortable with expanded military adventurism, as long as its paid with the blood of foreigners, and not their own.

In addition, our reliance on indigenous proxies in Iraq has been a disaster - many New Iraqi Army battalions are not combat effective, unwilling to engage other Iraqis, or are de facto militias whose true loyalties are to the Sunni insurgent factions or Shia or Kurdish political parties.

For all these reasons and more, I'd have to vote "nay" against your resolution.

Answer 3

Whereas there is already an "American Foreign Legion" organization for retired military to tell their war stories,

Whereas the United states military is already strong, and

Whereas casualties abroad are generally caused by poor military planning rather than numbers of soldiers present,

Whereas time spent serving in the military already provides credit towards citizenship, and

Whereas the U.S. Military is already full of foreigners trying to become American Citizens, Therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that there is no need of an American Foreign Legion similar to the french foreign legion.

Answer 4

no..its best to use people that are loyal to you..the french have no back bone and need others to do their fighting..