The American Foreign Legion

[Farnan]

Here is my idea, shamelessy stolen from another person I read on this forum before I registered and from the French.

Form an American Foreign Legion, that will primarily recruit from illegal aliens, but will be open to anyone within and without the United States, after background check will filter out all those with connections to terrorism and non-political fugitives. Here are some details:

Branch Army
Command It will be commanded by a General from the Regular US Army, all officers and NCOs of the rank of Seargent and above will be US Citizens. The only exception will be in regards to Chaplains who are not required to be citizens.
Organisation It will be organised in a number of combat brigades as neccessiatated by the number of soldiers. They will all be regular infantry brigades with two exceptions: a marine brigade who recieve additional training for amphibious operations, and a brigade who primarily recieve training in peacekeeping duties (such as conflict resolution, dealing with rioters, security, counter-insurgency tactics, ceremonial operations, training of native allies, etc.).
Training They will be given training the same as those of the regular US Army, besides the two special brigades. All units will also be given training in civilian vocational skills, English, and American Culture to enable those who leave the unit to quickly integrate into society.
Term of Enlistment They will sign up for an intial term of enlistment of 5 years, after which they will be eligible for citizenship. Afterwards they can re-enlist, and are encouraged to do so.
Pay Pay will be slightly lower for non-citizen soldiers, but the money that is not paid to them will go towards the vocational training and training in English
Basing They will be based in scenic Central Wyoming, far from anything important in case of any chance of mutiny, and in the middle of the country to protect from desertion. Also there is plenty of room for training.

[Kanaric]

We could get a lot of recruits, bet their would be many people willing to serve for citizenship.

[Erik]

IIRC forreigners can already earn American citizenship by joining the US Army.
Why do they need to be in seperate units from US born soldiers?

The idea behind the French legion was that they were more disposable than regular French soldiers, so they could be send to the most dangerous regions.
But this idea is already out-dated.

[internationalist]

IIRC forreigners can already earn American citizenship by joining the US Army.
Why do they need to be in seperate units from US born soldiers?

The idea behind the French legion was that they were more disposable than regular French soldiers, so they could be send to the most dangerous regions.
But this idea is already out-dated.

An interesting idea would to form units that were homogenous by culture/country, possibly to minimize the "occupying forces" embodied by a bunch of yanqui soldiers marching around in a foreign country.

[ajimenez3]

Also not practical in that it would drain resourses from the regular military. Congress would not fund such a unit also.


Semper Fi
Arturo

[Ahlerich]

well i think if they d do that they should take more advantage of the foreign legion applicants, such as way harder training, harder drill, legal punishment by hitting and "little" torture, like in the french legion or better the waffen ss

most importan: they should get their own military court independant from the army military court so they are mor "flexible" har har

[Farnan]

Erik: To join the Regular US Army you have to get a Greencard first, and there is a quota on the number of Greencards issued per country. As this recruits from non-Greencard holders, illegals by definition don't have Greencards, it will enable those who wish to move to America but for reasons such as being refugees, being from a nation with a small quota, etc. can't get ahold of a Greencard. Imagine how many Central American citizens would sign up for a legal way to go to the United States that is less dangerous, and get paid for it?

[Necromancer]

That's a great idea! I mean seriously, it would help with the illegal alien problems because after their term they can be quickly integrated into society and will already have some skills and a good education, this will result in fewer unemployed aliens who do not need to live off of welfare, I'm sure that they'll be happy to work and live in the USA. But as with everything, theory is easier than execution, and many of these illegal aliens will refuse to join this foreign legion, and are perfectly content with lying on the couch and watching TV everyday. You can't really force them to join but then again, they aren't US citizens, they don't have the rights of a citizen. We could pass a law requiring all illegal aliens to join and send out search teams for all of the ones who don't join. It may sound cruel, but we NEED to cut back on the number of illegal aliens entering this country everyday. America will basically have an auxilliary corp like Rome......sweet.

[Ahlerich]

yeah it really would help with the illegal allien problems. and if you get too many new citizens because of that you just send them in more dangerous missions to get rid of the aliens huahuahuaha

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

376 AD - Somewhere in Armenia.

Valens: Hmmm, we sure do have a recruiting problem.

Sebastianus: Well, some think these wars we're fighting in the Middle East are turning into a quagmire ...

Bacurius: I know Caesar, how about we use these illegal immigrants on the Danube - the Goths.

Valens: How?

Bacurius: Well, we could form a sort of 'Federate Legion' - join up and you get land.

Sebastianus: What if they mutiny?

Valens: Well, we could settle them on some crappy land in Thrace - far from anywhere. And pay them less than normal soldiers. What an excellent solution! Let's do it.

[Sétanta]

I think it would be popular amongst illegal immigrants.

And how about if you offer minor felons a chance to enlist as well

[LSJ]

Its an idea. A fairly good one too. The French have a foreign legion, and it has had a good reputation - the people are treated as citizens and they earn ethical amounts of money.

[Ahiga]

376 AD - Somewhere in Armenia.

Valens: Hmmm, we sure do have a recruiting problem.

Sebastianus: Well, some think these wars we're fighting in the Middle East are turning into a quagmire ...

Bacurius: I know Caesar, how about we use these illegal immigrants on the Danube - the Goths.

Valens: How?

Bacurius: Well, we could form a sort of 'Federate Legion' - join up and you get land.

Sebastianus: What if they mutiny?

Valens: Well, we could settle them on some crappy land in Thrace - far from anywhere. And pay them less than normal soldiers. What an excellent solution! Let's do it.

Oh my god, I'm laughing out loud. Brilliant.

[hellheaven1987]

376 AD - Somewhere in Armenia.

Valens: Hmmm, we sure do have a recruiting problem.

Sebastianus: Well, some think these wars we're fighting in the Middle East are turning into a quagmire ...

Bacurius: I know Caesar, how about we use these illegal immigrants on the Danube - the Goths.

Valens: How?

Bacurius: Well, we could form a sort of 'Federate Legion' - join up and you get land.

Sebastianus: What if they mutiny?

Valens: Well, we could settle them on some crappy land in Thrace - far from anywhere. And pay them less than normal soldiers. What an excellent solution! Let's do it.

Hahaha! That's really funny! But I know there was no problem for Roman Legion during the time!

[Farnan]

As for the slightly lower pay, if you noticed I said that the lower pay is to pay for the Vocational training that way they have a skill when they leave the Legion so they are not unemployed. Remember many of these people may not even have a High School Degree, so the vocational training is neccessary to get employement, and well worth a slight reduction in pay.

[hsimoorb]

I think if it would solve some of our recruitment problems, then fine. Even if we could use them as low trained bodes to help the occupations, that be fine with me. No need to give them fancy equipment, boot camp and some rifles are all our guys realy need in Okinawa anyways. Our good troops can go where they're needed.

[Sher Khan]

The only trouble would be protests from different groups complaining about using poor immigrants as army grunts for work that wouldn't be necessary for throwing away American lives. If we could pull this off without too much crippling public backlash, it could do extremely well.

However, I would assume that you risk the chance of enlisting moles and enemies in disguise, who would then try to sabotage the unit (such as subterfuge or inciting rebellion).

There's also a risk of mass rebellion, leading to many well trained men going off to train enemy combatants, insurgents, and terrorists about warfare.

[Last Roman]

I would support it 100%

@ThiudareiksGunthigg

that is totally different. You can't even compare the two. Look at what Farnan has suggested and what Valens did. I bet some poor Mexican, if offered the chance, would jump on that free education, a guaranteed citizenship and new skills offer. I would

[Sétanta]

The only trouble would be protests from different groups complaining about using poor immigrants as army grunts for work that wouldn't be necessary for throwing away American lives. If we could pull this off without too much crippling public backlash, it could do extremely well.

We can't do that with the regular army even though we try

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

@ThiudareiksGunthigg

that is totally different.

It was a joke. I know it's totally different. It's just that there have been a lot of (very silly) articles and discussions lately about historical lessons the US can learn from the Roman Empire and I couldn't resist making an equally silly analogy with this situation.