Time for an American Foreign Legion?

[Pilgrim]

Was it Hackworth who proposed something like this a few years back?

There was an article in 'Soldier of Fortune' magazine several years back that proposed the formation of an American Foreign Legion. The reasoning behind the concept was that the United States would be able to participate in foreign adventures without having to put up with the crying and wailing about sending our 'boys' to die in s--tholes like Mogadishu and Beirut.

Pilgrim

 

[Moonclip]

I've always thought it was a idea worth considering and I think your average America does not realize there is many green card holders in the service, I served with quite a few.

This was discussed at www.gunboards.com recently in the military history forums and some foreign members did not like it. Their opinion seems to be if that America can't find enough people to fight their own wars among it's citizens it is not right to have others do it for them.

Another good point is that in the modern era those countries that have deployed a foreign legion are not exactly regiems the USA wants to be associated with, namely the Nazi SS foreign units and the French!

 

[Hobie]

I think that this has been explored from time to time. However,the political realities of our egalitarian society will prevent such a thing. We simply enlist the foreigners in our military and let them serve. For a time at least one needed to serve only 3 years to be guaranteed citizenship. Fair trade I think. Look at some of the crap that is native born...

 

[DRZinn]

Look, the comparison between the Foreign Legion idea and the non-citizens already serving is moot - because those already serving must be legal residents first (correct me if I'm wrong there), while the proposal was to take them in straight from their mother country.

I really like the idea. Based somewhere outside our borders (a perfunctory scan of a world map shows at least eight US protectorates that would do just fine) reliant on us for logistical support, and thoroughly indoctrinated in just what it means to be an American, I think they could take a lot of the burden off of the regular military and a lot of the domestic criticism off of US foreign policy. Then when their terms are up we'd have a new lot of good US citizens. I'm thinking make them permanent reservists, too.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

I think we just need to take the ultimate step, and outsource the military to India or Malaysia.

We could have more soldiers for less money, and Americans don't have to die, or even work up a sweat. We can all sit home, play nintendo, get fat, and watch our empire grow. It would be cheaper to hire replacements than worry about the logistics and economics of body armor, complex weapons systems, etc.

If they commit atrocities, we can immediately disown them and tell the victims we are sorry that our product did not perform as expected, and that they need to take it up with the supplier in India.