Since the beginning of the US military campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan, about a thousand foreign citizens serving in the US army have received the citizenship of this country. At the same time, about 300 foreigners took the oath of allegiance to the American flag in Baghdad alone, and in total since 2003, when the United States army entered Iraq, American citizenship has been granted to more than 1200 American soldiers who were previously citizens of other states.
True, the “paperless” are guaranteed not to be sent to serve either in Hawaii or in Italy – only “hot spots” such as Iraq and Afghanistan are intended for them. Recruiters for the US Army immediately make it clear to potential foreign recruits that they will need to risk their own lives and, if necessary, go to their deaths to obtain an American passport.
In this case, the hero of America can not only be posthumously given American citizenship, but also grant the same citizenship to his wife, children and parents. Only in Iraq at the moment are immigrants from such exotic countries as Jamaica, Uruguay, Morocco, Fiji, Lesotho and even Papua New Guinea serving in the ranks of the US armed forces. All of these people enlisted in the American military with the goal of making good money and becoming legally American citizens. There is a procedure according to which, if a foreign soldier applies for American citizenship, and then died, his case is considered positively and posthumously, such a hero is immediately granted US citizenship.
I would like to note that this practice of granting citizenship of a country in exchange for a “funeral” to relatives and friends, as well as for service in “hot spots” is not a purely American invention. This is practiced in many countries, but the United States Army did not spoil its servicemen with such “carrots” before.
And on a legislative basis, the practice of inviting to serve America in exchange for citizenship has not yet been developed. At the very beginning of the Iraqi campaign, the then US President George W. Bush signed an executive order that canceled the three-year waiting period for applying for American citizenship for conscripts who ended up there after September 11, 2001.
Since then, the total number of foreign military personnel in the US military has grown from 19,000 to 39,000. The United States Congress has already passed a law that exempts Pentagon conscripts from the $ 575 fee to apply for United States citizenship, and allows soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to take an oath of allegiance to America at their duty station rather than on the ground. USA.
And yet, according to experts from the Pentagon, today there are not so many who want to fight for the United States with an external enemy. At the same time, fewer and fewer Americans believe that fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan can prevent international terrorists from attacking their country. So the Pentagon’s conscription services are having difficulty “scraping together” the required number of volunteers in the country’s armed forces. And the Pentagon has repeatedly raised the issue of creating a kind of “foreign legion” to serve in the “hot spots” of the planet.
Meanwhile, a number of generals in the US Department of Defense have expressed serious doubts about the increase in the number of foreigners in combat units of the United States army. In their opinion, this process leads to the loss of the sense of military brotherhood and patriotism that is inherent in troops consisting of American citizens.
True, according to American experts who monitor the behavior of American non-citizen servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is those who hope to receive an American passport that show real heroism on the battlefield, demonstrate good training, courage and strict observance of command orders.
There are no problems with foreigners in terms of the ideological postulates that are instilled in American citizens from childhood. Another question is which way, if we are to create a “foreign legion”, America should go. The example of France in this regard is very indicative, but it is far from the fact that the US leadership will follow the same path. As you know, the French Foreign Legion is formed exclusively from foreigners to carry out essentially police and punitive missions outside the borders of the metropolis.
In the USA, however, they believe that there can be no talk of any “punitive units” of foreigners. If we are to form something like a “foreign legion”, then only for service in the “hot spots” of the planet, and not for overthrowing the governments of countries unwanted by America.
The American generals themselves are of the opinion that if we talk about an increase in the number of foreign servicemen in the US Army, then we can only talk about their incorporation into the ranks of regular units in service, but not a separate “foreign team”.
