Mercenary: one that serves merely for wages; especially : a soldier hired into foreign service.

This Boston Globe article raises some truly fascinating questions (H/T FR):

WASHINGTON -- The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials.

[...]

"No doubt many would be willing to serve for some set period, in return for one of the world's most precious commodities -- US citizenship. Some might deride those who sign up as mercenaries, but these troops would have significantly different motives than the usual soldier of fortune."

Read the rest.

I have little issue with the idea, save the rather disgusting corollary that we can't expect current American citizens to show up in the numbers needed.

Ya know, the idea really supports Kerry's notion that only the young and dumb would choose to serve in the military. We have to seek the 'young and dumber' from other countries to fill our ranks!

Much more could be said, but I don't want to see Bill in trouble with the thought police.

With Bill's okay... and I've calmed down enough to avoid foul language and general invective.

What does it say about a country when it can't find recruits from within? Looking outside for fresh ideas and/or particular expertise makes sense. Looking outside for warriors to protect us is a whole other 'can 'o worms'.

There is a spiral forming... maybe even a whirlpool not unlike the swirl of the flushed toilet? Americans eschew firearms and other forms of self defense in favor of dependence on law enforcement. Many Americans don't grasp where their Chicken McNuggets actually come from. It wasn't long ago that a survey of big city kids demonstrated a lack of understanding of where milk came from.

We can't field a military without foreign parts and supplies, now we can't field a military without foreign recruits!

There's a cold slap in the face coming, 9/11 wasn't enough... what will it take? The very question is enough to send me more fully to survival mode or raise my pessimism to the level of paranoia.

"Think of it as evolution in action!" The quote is stolen from "Oath of Fealty", a 1982 novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Just giving credit.

But it fits well as part of the forming spiral I mentioned. A citizen doesn't know where their food comes from, doesn't know where their freedoms come from, and apparently doesn't care about those and more, do they deserve to survive?

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...

That doesn't seem to apply to 'the, fat, dumb, and happy, yearning to do nothing'.

Contributed by Zero Ponsdorf on December 26, 2006 at 03:52 PM in Caring about our troops, Current Affairs, Politics, The American Warrior, Zero Ponsdorf | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Bill Faith

Screw the Thought Police. I'm in a hell of a mood today and a good fight sounds like fun. Fire away.

Posted by: Bill Faith | Dec 26, 2006 3:59:06 PM

Posted by: madashell

I may be wrong but I still believe there millions of Americans who would step up if they realized how vulnerable this little Iraq adventure has made us by eviserating the Army and Marines. Our COC needs to own up to the situation and humbly ask the American people to bail him out by saving the military.

Posted by: madashell | Dec 26, 2006 7:15:15 PM

Posted by: ponsdorf

Nah, your time frame is showing. Clinton and several other politicians started the evisceration process. Clinton hated the military and did it no favors. Other politicians over the years have outsourced enough critical military items to turn a M1 tank into a paper tiger.

The truth is quite the reverse of your position. Our exercises in Iraq, and elsewhere, may be the eye-opener we need to save the military.

Posted by: ponsdorf | Dec 26, 2006 9:10:13 PM

Posted by: Rurik

Couldn't finish the whole article since I will not register with the Boston Pravda for their daily spam machine.
However, I read enough to be disturbed. This sounds far too evocative of the Roman Empire. Not only did Rome open the imperial borders to hordes of illegal Gothic aliens, they also filled their legions with barbarian recruits. That practice went back as far as the third emperor, Caligula and his German bodyguards. Already we worry about the professional military becoming alienated from the larger civilian society which is unable to distinguish a tank from an APC, or a battleship from a destroyer. When the people cease serving, and lose knowledge of arms, an alien and alienated army will "do the expected".
Among other missing items, I did not see the reporter raise the question of how we will process security clearances for recruits from distant fourth world countries. Nor did they raise the question of excluding undesirables or declared enemies. Just wait until the ACLU learns that our overseas recruiters are discriminating against Somalis, North Koreans, and Tajiks.
Fire in the hole!

Posted by: Rurik | Dec 27, 2006 10:45:54 AM

Posted by: Decurion

Now, now.

Let's be perfectly clear: The United States Army was founded by folks like:

Taddeuz Kosciousko (sp?)
Casmir Pulaski
Major General deFleury

Among others. Look them up--I have omitted the best-known of the "Mercenaries".

During the Civil War at least two corps worth of recent German immigrants took the field under the Union flag, as well as regiments and brigades of both Scotsmen and Irishmen.

The stereotypical blue-coated cavalrymen of the US Army were largely immigrants, and broke the fighting forces of the Indians while the 'citizen-soldiers' of the militia were murdering unarmed women and children at Sand Creek.

Foreigners have been part of the US Army since time immemorial, and done well. I know a Ukranian, numerous Samoans and Phillipinos, a Russian, a veteran of the British Army, and a Dutch guy in my battalion today. I've also known Soldiers from Guam, Ireland, Germany, several African countries, Mexico, Spain, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Your commentor is also dead wrong on the analogy to Rome. The problem isn't with having Germans in the Army. It was having bodies of Germans in the Army with their own leaders, using their own equipment, and in homogeneous bodies of 'feodorati'. In other words, if we started accepting battalions of the Mexican Army into our Army. Auxillia of non-Roman origin under Roman officers were a long tradition going back to the first days of the Republic and not harmful at all. In fact, the Roman Army served as a vehicle to integrate foreigners into Roman culture, teach them Roman values, and then set them up with enough acreage to become productive Roman taxpayers.

Posted by: Decurion | Dec 28, 2006 5:09:11 AM

Posted by: ponsdorf

Decurion:

There is little question all you say is true enough, but you missed my point. Allowing, or even asking, foreign nationals to join our military is not inherently bad. Doing all that because our own people can't or won't join up is a bad omen of no small significance. I was postulating that it is a part of a larger pattern.

Posted by: ponsdorf | Dec 28, 2006 7:17:42 AM

Posted by: Purple Avenger

Itll take splodydopes going off at the local malls on a regular basis to wake up the country.

What was it Churchill said? Something like: You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing...after all other options have been tried and failed.

Posted by: Purple Avenger | Jan 1, 2007 5:29:49 PM