"Boots on the ground" indeed! The "ground" is no problem. "Boots" are no problem. We want boots on the ground, just not ours! The real question is how best to get feet inside those boots willing to stand that ground and fight.
During the Korean War, our basic training unit had recruits from Greece, Italy and Australia. There was a law that physically fit men anywhere in the world could come to America and join the army. In Korea there was much hand-to-hand fighting in sub-zero temperatures. You – the foreign volunteer – went from basic training to Korea.
If you survived the war, you became an American citizen. I remember asking an officer how the program was working out. He told me, "We can't manufacture uniforms fast enough to meet the demand!"
Is it wrong to use your attractiveness to your own advantage? Attractive women who achieve high status are accused – rightly and wrongly – of "sleeping their way to the top," but that's not the majority condition. There are many praiseworthy ways to harness your attractiveness!
It's the same with countries. Nobody says Norway or Austria ought to pay taxes because their breathtaking beauty makes them so appealing to tourists. Nor should Arizona for having a climate that's good for asthmatics.
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America is the most attractive country on earth. Russia has no problem with illegal aliens trying to sneak in across their southern border. Or their northern, eastern or western borders. And neither does Bolivia, Botswana, Croatia, Iran or Lithuania. Whether the economy is walloping or whimpering, whether our president is a former general who defeated Hitler or a community organizer who couldn't stop the bullets from flying in Chicago, America is the major mother-magnet in the world. Is there anything wrong with using that attribute to save America and, while we're at it, Western civilization?
Let America announce the formation of the "International Legion." Fighting-age men may apply at any American embassy, legation or consulate in the world. Those who pass the physical and the initial screening and profiling will move on to a Legion center somewhere on his continent. Those who are accepted will report for basic training and intensive English courses at locations to be announced. Members of the International Legion will be paid $200 a month, 100 in cash and the other hundred in a bank account in his country for his family. What do you mean "paltry"? They're going to wind up American citizens!
Officers will be American; non-commissioned officers will rise through the ranks. The unambiguous mission will be to fight terrorism. Preference will go to those who've been victims. There will be relentless "screening and profiling" to eliminate any candidate with any trace of terrorist exposure, preachment, or any hint that an applicant has joined in hopes of emptying an automatic weapon at his buddies on the training ground.
Upon the completion of his first two-year term in the International Legion, the Legionnaire automatically becomes a citizen of the United States of America.
Admittedly, the optics are dicey here. It reeks of a return to British, French and Dutch colonialism of earlier centuries. Who cares, if we can score and score big, big numbers of applicants, big percentages from populations that have suffered at the hands of terror with no army there to fight for them?
If you know any Holocaust survivors, you'll know there was precious little interest in the ethnic, religious or motivational makeup of the troops that came to liberate them. But if they were Jewish troops attached to the British Eighth Army, with the Star of David as their insignia, there was a special joy among those liberated. I want to see the faces of those terrified Christians being liberated by their own sons wearing American uniforms, boots and all.
There's one catch here, and I'm afraid it's a big one. For this plan to work and work big and really pay off, America must first secure our borders. The reason there were so many foreign volunteers during the Korean War is that America's borders were "normalized," meaning, normally hard to get across illegally. The more the word gets around that America is so ho-hum-easy to break into, the less incentive there is to put your life on the line by volunteering to fight for America as a means to becoming an American!
I anticipate the onslaught of enraged readers who denounce this plan to "force" immigrants to "risk their lives to become Americans." Admittedly, it doesn't sound much like "amnesty," but we've had no difficulty asking Americans to "risk their lives" to remain free Americans. I see no infirmity in inviting those who want to join us to fight for us.
There you have it, limitless boots-on-the-ground under American control. The enemy has an army. I'm tired of begging for one.
"What's the score?" yelled the passerby to the outfielder in the sandlot. "Twenty-five to nothing," he replied. "Twenty-five you or twenty-five them?" "Twenty-five them," the player replied. "Y'all ain't doing too good, are you?" chided the onlooker.
"Well," remarked the outfielder. "It's too early to tell.
"You see, our team ain't been to bat yet!"
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