American Foreign Legion?

Here’s an interesting article on how to tackle the problem of military personel shortage. It suggests we form a sort of American foreign legion where foreigners in this country would serve in the military in exchange for US citizenship.

While I realize that our troops are over-stretched now, and I agree with the author that this sounds better then waver of criminal records in exchange to join the military, the problems with this solution are many.

I don’t think the American people would feel more safe knowing that they are being protected by foreign nationals, whose only reason for doing so is in order to get US citizenship.

While there are obviously those in the military who are serving in order to pay for their schooling, or whatever other reason one might have, there is still this sense of patriotism (how prevalent this is is arguable) and care for one’s country. This is not something that could be expected from a foreign national who has spent only a short period of time in the country. I also question unity, cohesion and camaraderie of the troops if we were to incorporate the foreign legion into the regular military forces.

Most importantly, this foreign legion would open up a whole new channel for terrorists from all sides to infiltrate our military. I don’t think I need to go into more detail in order to portray how serious of a security threat this would be...just use your imagination.