thedrifter
01-16-07, 01:29 PM
Foreigners Protecting America?
by Paul Connors
Why is it so unpalatable to Americans? It shouldn’t be; as a nation of immigrants, somewhere in our ancestral pasts, our forbearers were “foreign” to the soil we now call our homeland.
With an army and Marine Corps nearing the breaking point due to smaller than ideal force sizing and the constant stress and strain placed on the ground forces by the rotations to Afghanistan and Iraq, recruiting strategies are being reviewed for new ways to refresh the forces.
So then, why is the thought of foreign born, legal resident recruits anathema to so many American critics? We have no draft and the overwhelming majority of our population doesn’t serve, hasn’t served and probably doesn’t know anyone who has. The United States has had, for an entire generation, an all-volunteer force. Prior to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the military has had little trouble meeting its recruiting goals.
Oh sure, upturns in the economy often created civilian opportunities for military members that were too good to resist and many often bolted towards greener pastures. Real or perceived imbalances in salary and total compensation also created enticing situations for private sector recruiters. THese scenarios also made the “reverse” recruiting of military personnel, especially those with highly sought technical skills, much easier for potential employers.
Increasing the recruiting of foreign born legal residents of the United States should be just one of a number of common-sense recruiting strategies that should be available to the recruiting services of the United States Army and Marine Corps. It may, or may not, be necessary for the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard to do so. The first two are undergoing dramatic downsizings and the nation’s smallest service, the Coast Guard, has little problem meeting its recruiting and retention goals.
Critics will offer up the argument that wholesale recruiting of foreigners will lead to our nation being defended by a mercenary military yet our national history is rife with examples of non-citizens serving America during periods of crisis. Here are some examples of foreigners who served and the contributions they made:
The War of 1812: Jean Lafitte and his pirates at the Battle of New Orleans. Lafitte and his band of brigands served alongside the regular Army and militia troops under General Andrew Jackson and helped defeat a vastly superior British force. Few, if any of Lafitte’s men were American born and it doubtful if they were American citizens. The Louisiana territory had only been “American soil” since 1803, when President Jefferson purchased the land that doubled America in size from a financially strapped France led by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Mexican War: Large numbers of Irish immigrants, new to North America after fleeing famine and near feudal property conditions at home served in the U.S. Army in a campaign that added more territory to the country. Many did so for the bounties of land offered by the government, as well as ‘citizenship’ in a republic with no hereditary aristocracy.
The Civil War: With large numbers of troops needed by both the Union and Confederate governments, immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Poland served in blue and gray. National origins mattered little as these new Americans served in both armies and defended causes they believed in.
The Indian Wars: Army recruiters met ships carrying Irish, German and Italian immigrants at east coast ports. Young men, literally “just off the boat” with few prospects in a strange land, enlisted for service on the frontier. Many did so to avoid the congestion of the cities or to obtain the bounties offered by the government. Many of these young men already had military experience in their national armies, the papal armies or as soldiers of fortune fighting for one cause or another. They became the “frontier regulars” immortalized in history books, popular fiction and the cavalry movies from directors like John Ford. The last white man to see Lt. Col. George A. Custer alive at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876 was a recent Italian immigrant, Trumpeter Giovanni Martini of the 7th Cavalry, whom Custer dispatched with a message for Captain Frederick Benteen to bring up reinforcements and the pack mules carrying the regiment’s ammunition reserves.
World War I: As immigration continued into the still new 20th century and the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies, a small professional army needed to be filled out with militia troops and conscripts. Many of the draftees were new to American shores and couldn’t vote for the members of Congress that had declared war. Yet they answered their adopted nation’s call to arms. Recent immigrants served alongside and under the command of men whose ancestors had cast off the yoke of British colonial overlords.
World War II: Immigration continued throughout the 1920s and 30s and recent immigrants and their sons served by the thousands in the American armed forces that defeated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. Like the other Allies, the United States enlisted thousands of soldiers whose own armies had been destroyed for their language skills, cultural and geographic knowledge and experience and for intelligence gathering. Many served alongside American born agents in the OSS and after the war, when the USA and USSR, once wartime allies became Cold War enemies, assisted in the clandestine operations of various military intelligence organizations and the infant CIA.
The Korean War: Refugees from Soviet dominated eastern Europe served as volunteers and draftees alongside young men from across America as U.S. forces, under the United Nations flag first fought North Korean Communists and later, Communist Chinese troops. Just last year, President Bush belatedly hung the Medal of Honor around the neck of former U.S. Army Corporal Tibor “Ted” Rubin for his heroism during the Korean War. Rubin, a Hungarian Jew who had survived Mathausen concentration camp enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after arriving in the United States. Suffering additional anti-Semitism at the hands of his company First Sergeant, he soldiered on and was captured by the Red Chinese. While in a POW camp, he stole food and supplies for his fellow prisoners, risking torture or death for his fellow GIs had he been caught. All of the risks he took, and the actions he carried out, he did for his fellow soldiers and to repay the nation that had liberated him from the horrors of the Nazi death camp that had destroyed his family.
Vietnam: Unknown to most Americans, and while many American men fled to Canada or Sweden to avoid service in Vietnam, thousands of Canadian men came south to enlist in our Armed Forces. As non-citizens they did not have to serve in a combat zone, yet many did and of those who did, ALL were volunteers. The book, WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE AND YOUNG, by LTG Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, offers a revealing look at one young man who came to the United States from the United Kingdom and would up leading U.S. soldiers in the Ia Drang valley with the 1/7 Cav in November 1965. Lieutenant Rick Rescorla served as a platoon leader in Moore’s battalion and would go on to retire from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel. A hero to the end, he died on 9/11 as he tried to rescue fellow Morgan Stanley employees from World Trade Center 2.
Iraq & Afghanistan: The Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq ties up a disproportionately large percentage of our military. The rotations between home station and the combat theaters continue. The initial patriotism that led to the enlistments by many young people has faded, along with popular support for the Iraq misadventure. Despite that fact, the Army and Marine Corps will continue to need a constant influx of recruits to provide for continued force manning. It is fairly obvious that current national demographics being what they are, that without the employment of non-citizens in uniform, at some point, recurring personnel shortfalls will pose additional problems for military planners.
Why not allow foreign born residents of the United States to serve? Allow them to serve and “earn” their citizenship. Granted, non-citizens cannot obtain security clearances for the most sensitive positions, but that doesn’t mean they cannot serve. There are many specialties that do not require a clearance, yet these jobs are still important functions that need people to carry them out.
Critics fear that we will have a force of mercenaries taking the place of the Americans who should be doing the defending. A mercenary is an individual who fights for hire without national allegiance NOT a foreign born soldier who enlists and serves as a regular member of the armed forces. Remember, we do have an all-volunteer force and the vast majority of Americans, who are not subject to conscription, have elected NOT to serve. That leaves us with a problem, especially if the Army and Marine Corps are expanded as the President hopes to do.
So where do we get the troops to man the ramparts? If we do not get them from the citizenry and the restoration of a draft is unthinkable from a political standpoint, then creative recruiting becomes all the more necessary. Allowing non-citizens to answer the call to the colors, even when those colors are not their own predates the birth of the republic. Military service has long been the tie that binds Americans together. Without a shared sense of a common purpose, non-citizens will never come to realize what it is they have invested in.
Is an investment in the United States of America really worth it? The thousands of immigrants who came here before us and served in uniform seem to think so. Just ask former Cpl. Tibor Rubin, Medal of Honor recipient, survivor of Mathausen concentration camps AND a Red Chinese POW camp what his military service (prior to obtaining U.S. citizenship) meant to him.
Ellie
by Paul Connors
Why is it so unpalatable to Americans? It shouldn’t be; as a nation of immigrants, somewhere in our ancestral pasts, our forbearers were “foreign” to the soil we now call our homeland.
With an army and Marine Corps nearing the breaking point due to smaller than ideal force sizing and the constant stress and strain placed on the ground forces by the rotations to Afghanistan and Iraq, recruiting strategies are being reviewed for new ways to refresh the forces.
So then, why is the thought of foreign born, legal resident recruits anathema to so many American critics? We have no draft and the overwhelming majority of our population doesn’t serve, hasn’t served and probably doesn’t know anyone who has. The United States has had, for an entire generation, an all-volunteer force. Prior to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the military has had little trouble meeting its recruiting goals.
Oh sure, upturns in the economy often created civilian opportunities for military members that were too good to resist and many often bolted towards greener pastures. Real or perceived imbalances in salary and total compensation also created enticing situations for private sector recruiters. THese scenarios also made the “reverse” recruiting of military personnel, especially those with highly sought technical skills, much easier for potential employers.
Increasing the recruiting of foreign born legal residents of the United States should be just one of a number of common-sense recruiting strategies that should be available to the recruiting services of the United States Army and Marine Corps. It may, or may not, be necessary for the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard to do so. The first two are undergoing dramatic downsizings and the nation’s smallest service, the Coast Guard, has little problem meeting its recruiting and retention goals.
Critics will offer up the argument that wholesale recruiting of foreigners will lead to our nation being defended by a mercenary military yet our national history is rife with examples of non-citizens serving America during periods of crisis. Here are some examples of foreigners who served and the contributions they made:
The War of 1812: Jean Lafitte and his pirates at the Battle of New Orleans. Lafitte and his band of brigands served alongside the regular Army and militia troops under General Andrew Jackson and helped defeat a vastly superior British force. Few, if any of Lafitte’s men were American born and it doubtful if they were American citizens. The Louisiana territory had only been “American soil” since 1803, when President Jefferson purchased the land that doubled America in size from a financially strapped France led by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Mexican War: Large numbers of Irish immigrants, new to North America after fleeing famine and near feudal property conditions at home served in the U.S. Army in a campaign that added more territory to the country. Many did so for the bounties of land offered by the government, as well as ‘citizenship’ in a republic with no hereditary aristocracy.
The Civil War: With large numbers of troops needed by both the Union and Confederate governments, immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Poland served in blue and gray. National origins mattered little as these new Americans served in both armies and defended causes they believed in.
The Indian Wars: Army recruiters met ships carrying Irish, German and Italian immigrants at east coast ports. Young men, literally “just off the boat” with few prospects in a strange land, enlisted for service on the frontier. Many did so to avoid the congestion of the cities or to obtain the bounties offered by the government. Many of these young men already had military experience in their national armies, the papal armies or as soldiers of fortune fighting for one cause or another. They became the “frontier regulars” immortalized in history books, popular fiction and the cavalry movies from directors like John Ford. The last white man to see Lt. Col. George A. Custer alive at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876 was a recent Italian immigrant, Trumpeter Giovanni Martini of the 7th Cavalry, whom Custer dispatched with a message for Captain Frederick Benteen to bring up reinforcements and the pack mules carrying the regiment’s ammunition reserves.
World War I: As immigration continued into the still new 20th century and the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies, a small professional army needed to be filled out with militia troops and conscripts. Many of the draftees were new to American shores and couldn’t vote for the members of Congress that had declared war. Yet they answered their adopted nation’s call to arms. Recent immigrants served alongside and under the command of men whose ancestors had cast off the yoke of British colonial overlords.
World War II: Immigration continued throughout the 1920s and 30s and recent immigrants and their sons served by the thousands in the American armed forces that defeated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. Like the other Allies, the United States enlisted thousands of soldiers whose own armies had been destroyed for their language skills, cultural and geographic knowledge and experience and for intelligence gathering. Many served alongside American born agents in the OSS and after the war, when the USA and USSR, once wartime allies became Cold War enemies, assisted in the clandestine operations of various military intelligence organizations and the infant CIA.
The Korean War: Refugees from Soviet dominated eastern Europe served as volunteers and draftees alongside young men from across America as U.S. forces, under the United Nations flag first fought North Korean Communists and later, Communist Chinese troops. Just last year, President Bush belatedly hung the Medal of Honor around the neck of former U.S. Army Corporal Tibor “Ted” Rubin for his heroism during the Korean War. Rubin, a Hungarian Jew who had survived Mathausen concentration camp enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after arriving in the United States. Suffering additional anti-Semitism at the hands of his company First Sergeant, he soldiered on and was captured by the Red Chinese. While in a POW camp, he stole food and supplies for his fellow prisoners, risking torture or death for his fellow GIs had he been caught. All of the risks he took, and the actions he carried out, he did for his fellow soldiers and to repay the nation that had liberated him from the horrors of the Nazi death camp that had destroyed his family.
Vietnam: Unknown to most Americans, and while many American men fled to Canada or Sweden to avoid service in Vietnam, thousands of Canadian men came south to enlist in our Armed Forces. As non-citizens they did not have to serve in a combat zone, yet many did and of those who did, ALL were volunteers. The book, WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE AND YOUNG, by LTG Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, offers a revealing look at one young man who came to the United States from the United Kingdom and would up leading U.S. soldiers in the Ia Drang valley with the 1/7 Cav in November 1965. Lieutenant Rick Rescorla served as a platoon leader in Moore’s battalion and would go on to retire from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel. A hero to the end, he died on 9/11 as he tried to rescue fellow Morgan Stanley employees from World Trade Center 2.
Iraq & Afghanistan: The Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq ties up a disproportionately large percentage of our military. The rotations between home station and the combat theaters continue. The initial patriotism that led to the enlistments by many young people has faded, along with popular support for the Iraq misadventure. Despite that fact, the Army and Marine Corps will continue to need a constant influx of recruits to provide for continued force manning. It is fairly obvious that current national demographics being what they are, that without the employment of non-citizens in uniform, at some point, recurring personnel shortfalls will pose additional problems for military planners.
Why not allow foreign born residents of the United States to serve? Allow them to serve and “earn” their citizenship. Granted, non-citizens cannot obtain security clearances for the most sensitive positions, but that doesn’t mean they cannot serve. There are many specialties that do not require a clearance, yet these jobs are still important functions that need people to carry them out.
Critics fear that we will have a force of mercenaries taking the place of the Americans who should be doing the defending. A mercenary is an individual who fights for hire without national allegiance NOT a foreign born soldier who enlists and serves as a regular member of the armed forces. Remember, we do have an all-volunteer force and the vast majority of Americans, who are not subject to conscription, have elected NOT to serve. That leaves us with a problem, especially if the Army and Marine Corps are expanded as the President hopes to do.
So where do we get the troops to man the ramparts? If we do not get them from the citizenry and the restoration of a draft is unthinkable from a political standpoint, then creative recruiting becomes all the more necessary. Allowing non-citizens to answer the call to the colors, even when those colors are not their own predates the birth of the republic. Military service has long been the tie that binds Americans together. Without a shared sense of a common purpose, non-citizens will never come to realize what it is they have invested in.
Is an investment in the United States of America really worth it? The thousands of immigrants who came here before us and served in uniform seem to think so. Just ask former Cpl. Tibor Rubin, Medal of Honor recipient, survivor of Mathausen concentration camps AND a Red Chinese POW camp what his military service (prior to obtaining U.S. citizenship) meant to him.
Ellie