Possible solution for our 'empire builder' Bush's problem of finding fresh bodies to serve in his military for his perpetual wars policy.
Should U.S. Recruit Non-citizens?
by William Norman Grigg
03/26/05 "New American" - - As the Roman Empire went into terminal decline, and fewer Roman citizens enlisted to fight the endless imperial wars, Roman rulers turned increasingly to the services of foreign mercenaries -- ultimately, with disastrous results. Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has urged Washington to emulate that self-destructive policy.
“It is hard to pick up a newspaper without reading about Army and Marine Corps recruiting and retention woes,” wrote Boot in a recent syndicated column. “Nonstop deployments and the danger faced by troops in Iraq are making it hard for both services to fill their ranks. The same goes for the National Guard and Reserves.”
Rather than rethinking our foreign policy to bring our military commitments into balance with our resources (and into harmony with constitutional principles), Boot argues that the military “would do well today to open its ranks not only to legal immigrants but also to illegal ones and, as important, to untold numbers of young men and women who are not here now but would like to come. No doubt many would be willing to serve for some set period in return for one of the world’s most precious commodities — U.S. citizenship. Open up recruiting stations from Budapest to Bangkok, Cape Town to Cairo, Montreal to Mexico City.”
Most native-born and naturalized American citizens regard citizenship as a blessing. To Boot, it’s a commodity, and those who enlist in his proposed “Freedom Legion” would be disposable cannon fodder: “U.S. politicians, wary (and rightly so) of casualties among U.S. citizens, might take a more lenient attitude toward the employment of a force not made up of their constituents.” Boot apparently assumes that most Americans share his view that foreign lives are cheaper and more expendable than ours.
Of course, implicit in Boot’s suggestion is the possibility of recruiting foreigners to carry out homeland defense missions presently left begging because of prolonged overseas deployment of Guard and Reserve units.
© Copyright 2005 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8383.htm
Should U.S. Recruit Non-citizens?
by William Norman Grigg
03/26/05 "New American" - - As the Roman Empire went into terminal decline, and fewer Roman citizens enlisted to fight the endless imperial wars, Roman rulers turned increasingly to the services of foreign mercenaries -- ultimately, with disastrous results. Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has urged Washington to emulate that self-destructive policy.
“It is hard to pick up a newspaper without reading about Army and Marine Corps recruiting and retention woes,” wrote Boot in a recent syndicated column. “Nonstop deployments and the danger faced by troops in Iraq are making it hard for both services to fill their ranks. The same goes for the National Guard and Reserves.”
Rather than rethinking our foreign policy to bring our military commitments into balance with our resources (and into harmony with constitutional principles), Boot argues that the military “would do well today to open its ranks not only to legal immigrants but also to illegal ones and, as important, to untold numbers of young men and women who are not here now but would like to come. No doubt many would be willing to serve for some set period in return for one of the world’s most precious commodities — U.S. citizenship. Open up recruiting stations from Budapest to Bangkok, Cape Town to Cairo, Montreal to Mexico City.”
Most native-born and naturalized American citizens regard citizenship as a blessing. To Boot, it’s a commodity, and those who enlist in his proposed “Freedom Legion” would be disposable cannon fodder: “U.S. politicians, wary (and rightly so) of casualties among U.S. citizens, might take a more lenient attitude toward the employment of a force not made up of their constituents.” Boot apparently assumes that most Americans share his view that foreign lives are cheaper and more expendable than ours.
Of course, implicit in Boot’s suggestion is the possibility of recruiting foreigners to carry out homeland defense missions presently left begging because of prolonged overseas deployment of Guard and Reserve units.
© Copyright 2005 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8383.htm