Establish An American Foreign Legion

The County Press (Second ThoughtsP ^ | 10-15 | William W. Lawrence

[Mr. Lucky]

Residents Puerto Rico, Guam etc are US citizens. Foreign citizens who serve honorably in the United States armed forces serve alongside US citizens.

[Prodigal Son]

Yeah. And what are Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa themselves? States? Do they have voting representation in Congress? They do not have the same status as Georgia or Alabama. They are de facto colonies. The US might like to look upon them as being in an "other" category, but they are colonies. We aquired most of them via military means. (Alaska and Louisiana were purchased) They were not originally within what we claimed as our territorial boundaries- the Philippines are way across the Pacific Ocean for god's sakes. The Philippines gained their independence from the US on July 4, 1946. Before that, what were they? Some say possession, some say territory- it all boils down to the same thing. They didn't belong to themselves, they belonged to us. They weren't proper Americans but were claimed as America by a capital far far away. Colonization. Or whatever you care to call it.

[CanadianLibertarian]

Nope , we cant have the Gurkhas. Although the Brits have reduced the gurkhas to one regiment , the Indian Army has increased their Gurkha forces to some 40,000 men.

Gurkhas all go to the Indian military now, and are surely some of their most fearsome fighting forces.

[buwaya]

The Philippines was not legally a US posession after the Tydings-McDuffie law of 1934, previous to that Filipinos were US Nationals like Guamanians and Puerto Ricans. They lost that status in 1934 and were subject to an immigration quota like all other foreigners.

I have to say that to the extent that Filipino politicians pushed for this it was a very bad move.

[buwaya]

There are still plenty of Gurkha recruits to be had in Nepal. At their peak in 1945 there were over 200,000 Gurkhas in the Indian (then British-run) army.