Posted on 06/16/2005 7:09:25 PM PDT by CHARLITE
The Army is getting desperate. Having fallen 25% short of already reduced recruiting goals last month, it is raising enlistment bonuses to $40,000 in some cases and lowering standards to accept and retain soldiers who would have been turned away in years past. A minor criminal record? No high school diploma? Uncle Sam still wants you.
Down this way disaster lies — the undoing of the finest armed forces in U.S. history. But what choice is there? With combat dragging on in Iraq and plenty of jobs available at home, there aren't enough volunteers. So far, a real crisis has been averted only because the Army has exceeded its retention goals and kept some troops in uniform past their discharge dates, but it will only get tougher to keep volunteers in uniform if troops are constantly deployed overseas.
There are two obvious, and obviously wrongheaded, solutions to this problem: Pull out of Iraq now or institute a draft. The former would hand a victory to terrorists and undo everything that more than 1,700 Americans have given their lives to achieve. The latter option, aside from being a political non-starter, would also dilute the high quality of the all-volunteer force.
Having reviewed all the other possibilities and found them wanting, I return to the solution I proposed on this page in February: Broaden the recruiting base beyond U.S. citizens and permanent, legal residents. Legislation has been drafted to make a modest start in that direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I agree with this
If they want citizenship, let them EARN it
Char :)
I have no problem giving citizenship to an alien who serves HONORABLY in our military. I would limit citizenship to the immediate family, no extended family of 50 or 60 people.
I'm usually a fan of Max Boot, but this column is weak. Overall Army strength is fine, yet he describes the situation as "desperate," and he wants to hit the panic button leading to radical new recruiting ideas.
Overwrought rhetoric might make for a popular newpaper column, but it's not way to run the U.S. military. Let's let the situation develop for a few more months or years before we get too "creative." With a total Army over a million (plus other services to draw upon) we have enough people.
You can't be serious.
I would not want my life to depend on those who
do not support this country, thinks the US belongs
to their country. Will not learn English.
I live 15 miles north from the largest border crossing
in the world. I am in a large city and see and hear
more than those who don't have to deal with these problems.
If I remember my world history correctly, depending on foreign conscripts for their army was one of the big factors (along with lead poisoning, venereal disease, etc.) in the fall of the Roman empire.
First of all, my guess is, the military would train them to love this country real quick
And if they're putting their life on the line for it, they're likely to build up an attachment to it.
I personally think even legal immigrants should have to do a stint in the military before we even think of granting citizenship.
Very bad idea.
Usually I like very brief comments. But in this case, I'm not sure which "very bad idea" you're referring to.
Ditto.
Great idea! Lets give the finest military training in the world to people who we may have to fight one day. I have a co-worker from Mexico who is a U.S. citizen but is fiercely loyal to Mexico. He's just here for the bennies and he's managed to bring his whole family here too, some of them are even, you guessed it, illegal.
Good idea. Should certainly solve the deportation issue.
Agreed. Kind of reminds me of reading about how the Romans drafted increasing numbers of barbarians into the legions in the later years of the Empire until - whoops - there was no longer a Roman army, just a bunch of well-equipped Germans looking to get paid (and swap emperors).
Remember the Americans who went to Canada to enlist before we entered WWII? What about them foreigners in the Canadian military?
All I can think of is the Goths in Roman service.
It really worked splendidly for a long, long time.
During that time, because Rome's native fertility rate was declining precipitously and people concentrated in the urban areas, border regions became depopulated. The Empire did not want to expend its treasure defending those long borders against every wandering barbarian who wanted to cross it, and besides, somebody was needed to farm those areas. And so the barbarians were permitted to enter the Empire on all of the frontiers, and to settle in the vacant lands. Which they did en masse. They did not, of course, give up their language or their culture, and the Empire was not willing to expend either the money nor the effort to cause them too. After all, they should be happy to have been allowed to settle within Rome, and the appeal of Roman civilization would, no doubt civilize them in the end.
No doubt.
Likewise, with a paucity of Roman births anyway, and even fewer native born Romans wanting to volunteer for the rigors of life in the 33 legions, why not recruit the lusty barbarians, who enjoyed warfare, to take on the nasty task of defending Rome's borders? So long as the officers were Roman, and discipline was Roman there could be no harm in that, could there?
Could there?
It all made perfect sense, and it worked very, very well for a very long time. The barbarians did indeed become Romanized. They filled out the Army and fought for Rome, and learned the art of organized warfare in the service of Rome. The borderlands filled up with barbarians who tilled the soil and paid some tribute to Rome...and invited their cousins from across the border to come in and fill in more of the land.
But of course eventually the day came when the provincials did not agree with Rome, and would not pay their taxes. And Rome, as it always had, sent the legions to quell the revolt. And Gauls were sent to suppress Gauls, Goths to suppress Goths. Of course, when they got to their provinces, they joined their brethren and extracted tribute from Rome, instead of enforcing Rome's laws.
Do please remember that there are, officially, 9 million Latinos in the US illegally, and unofficially probably more like 20 million. Do remember that nobody has forgotten the history of 1848: this is the return of people to land they believe is theirs.
Of course, all of that is theoretical anyway. The current administration is never going to ask the Army to defend the borders and stop illegal immigration: this would hurt business interests. And no Democratic administration will ask the Army to defend the border to stop illegal immigration: this would harm the influx of future Democratic voters.
But if you decide to make the Army Mexican, because you are unwilling to pay Americans enough money to volunteer in sufficient numbers to man the Army, you will no doubt be able to create a very powerful, robust, and well-trained US Army which you can deploy to do the hard work everywhere. But if someday some President is foolish enough to ask this Army to close the Mexican border, and cut off the 40 or 50 million Mexicans on the hither side of it from the 100 million Mexicans on the yonder side of it, to turn their arms against brothers and cousins, the US Army is very likely to tell the US President "No".
And once it does that, it is likely to tell the US President a great number of other thinks that he will have to do, or be replaced by a candidate more to the liking of the US Army, manned by Mexicans, because America did not want to pay Americans the kind of money it would take to cause them to man the Army.
Rome experienced that.
Americans, of course, are far wiser and more experienced at government than the Romans, and are much more aware of history too. Americans never could make the Roman mistake.
After all, the Romans had merely 1100 years of experience governing the known world to instruct them. Americans have had comparable experience, no doubt, in their 100 years on the world scene.
No doubt.
Emphasis on recruiting goal stateside aways neglect to mention that we have recuited and are training allies in Iraq and Afghanistan,about 200,000 of them, I think.
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