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Should the US create a Foreign Legion for non-Americans?

As PJ D-Dog and I had the opportunity to discuss this the other night over a few beers (I'm still stunned at the chances of two former CF members now being in the Marines both being stationed in the DC area...).

France's Foreign Legion is one of the countries best force projection tools ever developed.  It is extremely convenient to send the FFL into action as there are relatively few weeping mothers, wives or family members that have any political pull in France.  Such a force in the US would benefit similarly.  They would be the forgotten, underappreciated bastards of US foreign policy and they would love it, for those who joined the Legion joined to live and die as a warrior amongst warriors.

This is an excellent topic, however not too much has been touched upon regarding the US' view on this.   First off, if this Foreign Legion was created, would all non-US citizens wanting to join the US Armed Forces have this as their only option of service?  Would a green card holder only have the Legion as his only option in serving the US Armed Forces?  Or, would the Legion be setup only to take non-citizen and non-permanent residents?

It's not very enticing to a non-citizen to enter the country and serve a 3 or 5 year FFL style enlistment contract in order to gain US citizenship when a green card holder can (technically) apply for citizenship after day one at boot camp under current US immigration law.

There's alot of xehophobic elements in the US that would see a serious security issue with bringing in non-US pers. into the country and training them in military skills.

Under the current post 9-11 counter-terro security concerned US alot of concerns would have to be taken care of.

First off, you'd have to have some sort of pre-screening where the applicant would contact the US embassy/consulate in their own country and have a criminal background check performed.   Would this be really that effective in developing countries such as Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, etc. where you'd be relying on a questionable source at best from the local authorities.   Perhaps such a background check would consist of an initial interview followed by a criminal background check to see if the person was on any terrorist watch list, etc.  The list of countries that applicants would be accepted from could be limited to those who were in countries that had decent law-enforcement/counter-terror services and would be able to provide an accurate and timely report as to whether the potential recruit had a criminal record or was on a watch-list for terrorist activities.  Also during this initial interview an initial strength test/physical screening would be conducted to assess whether the applicant had the physical ability to join the Legion.

Once the initial screening was completed, the applicant would be issued a special Foreign Legion recruit visa.  This visa would only good for entry to a certain US port of entry where the recruit would be picked up at that port of entry by Foreign Legion staff and taken into custody for their service contract.   The cost pf trave; to this port of entry would be borne by the recruit.   The recruit would also be required to have possession of enough cash to purchase a return ticket to their home country if they did not successfully complete their training, if the recruit did not have the necessary funds to purchase a return ticket, their service pay would have an allotment set up to set aside funds necessary for their return home.   If the recruit wasn't able to sucessfully complete recruit training or their initial enlistment travel arrangements home would be provided and their visa would be cancelled.

In order to capitalize on the cost and time involved in doing the pre-screening and to ensure that the Foreign Legion member became assimilated to US society and culture, their service contract should be 5 years.   At the end of their initial contract they'd be granted US citizenship and given the option to reenlist or enter civilian life in the US.

Once you've got recruiting and service requirements set up, now comes the issue of officer staffing.

I believe that the Legion should be staffed by Sr. NCOs and officers from the US Armed Forces, with particular emphasis on put on recruiting from the combat arms formations from the US Army and Marine Corps.  A Legion Officer's Candidates School would be developed that would ideally mirror some type of special operations selection school, with a relatively high attrition rate to ensure that those who were successful would be the type of leader that would prevail in the worst-case combat scenario.  All senior leadership positions in the Legion would be limited to this officer cadre, however company level officer positions could be eventually augmented by Legion members commissioned from the ranks.

The issue of where to base such a Foreign Legion would also be a cause of concern within the US.  I could see somewhere such as Guantanamo Bay being used for recruit training.  Deserting from this recruit school would be extremely difficult and the recruit would have no choice but to either accept service in the Legion as his new life, or to quit and return to his home country.  Once recruit school was done at Guantanamo Bay the recruits would be sent to the operational units of the Legion.  Where the operational units could be located would also be somewhat problematic.  Many US politicians would be opposed to stationing these units on the continental US.  Possibly the US territory of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean might be an option, as would some of the US possesed islands in the Pacific such as Guam may be possible homes?  In reality, I don't think that there would be much problem with basing the operational units on the continental US.


 
Steve,

To me the advantage of having a foreign legion would be that it could be deployed for longer periods of time and at more frequency than a regular US unit.  Also, you'd probably be able to structure the pay and benefits in a foreign legion to make it more attractive to the US government to create such an organization.

Also, when you consider that alot of your applicants would not be very proficient in speaking English, the recruit training would be able to address that in some sort of language training.

There are some merits to what you state, but I think that if you're letting in foreign strangers into your country to do service in arms for you, it's somewhat advisable to keep them at 'arms length' for an initial period.  A Foreign Legion that trained its recruits somewhere remote like Guantanamo Bay would satisfy these requirements until the recruit had proven himself as a loyal member of the legion and was ready to give his life for the service of America.

Something tells me that a 6 week basic training stint at Lackland Air Force Base just wouldn't do the trick.  ::)
 
In our draft day the Army gave English language training to recruits from PR at Ft Jackson, prior to the start of BCT. This could be done again. I just don't know how a foreign legion would sit with the nation at large. Security concerns would be considerable. It would be difficult to get background checks done for recruits from many countries. We have a huge backlog for security checks as it is.
 
S_Baker said:
I believe the biggest backlash would be from CDN politicians who would go ballistic when they found out that CDNs were being allowed to join the US military!    

I agree fully but what are the Canadian politicians going to do?  Write a nastygram to the US saying "stop it".  Negative reactions toward American policy by Canadian politicians could force the Canadian government to do what is needed to the CF.  It could serve as a much needed wake up call.  Let's face it, DND has been asleep at the wheel in regards to the CF for way too long.  Only recently have they waken up and now it's nearly too late.  It will take a long time, a lot of money and a super effort to get things to where they need to be in the CF.

PJ D-Dog.
 
It doesn't have to be anything major, as Tomahawk said, all the US military has to do is sponsor Canadians for Permanent Residency Status.  The Canadian Government has no grounds to dispute how the US handles its immigration laws.
 
Interesting how some people feel that the Canadian government would launch a formal protest against the US if it opened up recruiting to Canadians.

I don't seem to remember Ottawa ever filing anything against France for allowing Canadians to serve in its Foreign Legion or against the UK for allowing (in the past) Canadians to serve in its military.
 
Matt, you bring up a good point but I don't see herds of people running off to join the FFL.  If the US were to open the door to Canadians for their military, you can be sure there would be hoards of people running toward the border.

The issue here is that 80 per cent of the Canadian population live within three hours driving time from the US border.  To join the FFL, you hve to fly to France.  Air fare is not cheap to Europe.  Driving to the US is cheaper.  I would anticipate a very strong negative reaction from the Canadian government although it would probably be short lived.  After the smoke clears, people would just kind of forget about it and worry about constitutional issues and the non-withstanding clause used by Quebec to override the constitution they never signed...duh...

PJ D-Dog
 
PJ,

I think that it would probably be a good reality check to the Canadian government.  If the recruiting pool for the dried up and you had a considerable drain on the CFs through VRs because people were wanting to join the US military, then maybe DND would have a hard look at itself and streamline the recruiting process, increase pay and benefits for both regular and reserve and make a stronger case for a budget that would allow for more capital investments.

Politicians in Ottawa for years have been silently selling off the Forces capabilities knowing full well that Canada is completely reliant on the US/NATO for the protection of its sovereignty.  A exodus of Canadians to join the US military would just be another extension of Ottawa outsourcing the defence of Canada.  It would really put the politicians in the position of "Put Out or Shut Up."
 
Matt:  Agreed.  I feel the same way about it.  Another major conflict is not going to be enough for the Can gov to wake up, as we've seen with the Iraq issue.  They will use the whole UN thing to opt out of the conflict and let our allies do the real work.

The Can gov is under the wrong impression when it comes to the UN.  They have in bed with them with the whole peace keeping thing for so long that now they don't want to do anything unilaterrally with any allied force.  I think a lot of this UN stuff is a big pipe dream left over from the cold war and highly influenced during the 1960s peace revolution.  I'm not saying the UN does not do good work in other areas but its abilities, per the Canadian governments' perspective, is over estimated.

Getting back to the topic, we need to change some laws here in the US and make our military accessible to Canadians.  Ironically, that is the only way the CF will survive as a substantial organization as opposed to being the marginal force that it has become today.  With a troop strength of less than 60,000, it is a token force at best.  Let's face it, there are more police officers in New York city than there are active duty troops in all of Canada.  There are only 10 million people living in New York city.

Proportionately speaking, the CF represents only 0.002 per cent of the Canadian population.  In New York City, the percentage of police is 0.006 per cent of the population.  These are sad numbers for Canada.  I have not worked out the per centages for the US military as a whole.

PJ D-Dog
 
I think that its a great idea to allow Canadian's to join up with the US Marine Corps. If something like that were to happen I might consider joining up as well. :warstory:
 
What would the US benefit more from: a new bde or div of foreign soldiers, or that same pool of foreign soldiers to fill-out & expand existing units & formations?
 
They should not put all of the auslanders in one unit. It ghetto-izes the troops, there are socialization issues, and you could end up with a 1er REP type of problem.

If the end state is a US Army soldier who will release after five years into society as a US citizen, then he should be serving alongside guys from International Falls MN, and Port Arthur TX.  Not just among fellow auslanders.

No advertizing needed.  Just let the word out that it can happen, and boom....5000 Canadians a year, no probs.

As I said on the other link, If Doctors, Nurses, and Engineers can pick the best contract on either side of the 49th, why not soldiers?

Tom

Tom
 
MCG said:
What would the US benefit more from: a new bde or div of foreign soldiers, or that same pool of foreign soldiers to fill-out & expand existing units & formations?

All though the original idea is to place them all in the same unit, if this were to happen, they would probably end up being placed where they are needed throughout the Corps.

PJ D-Dog
 
As an outsider watching several news outlets discuss manpower shortages in the current US force structure, I would expect the foreign manpower would provide greater benefit in the existing organization.

Language could be eliminated as a concern if you limited recruiting to the "Anglosphere" (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) but you would reduce the potential recruit pool.
 
I'd actually be more interested in getting a position with the Military Police or CIS down in the states. So I'd have to say that Canadian's should be allowed to apply to the American Military in general, rather then only be allowed to serve in one branch. Didn't the American Military used to allow foriegn citizens into its military?
 
It already seems to be happening (I knew there were a few, but not this many):

Eduardo Aguirre Jr., director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ... said that people are often surprised when he tells them there are more than 45,000 non-U.S. citizens in the armed forces. ... Since Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in March 2003, about 12,000 military personnel have been sworn-in as new U.S. citizens.
http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/read.php?story_id_key=7003
 
A few ideas on a US Foreign Legion
For recruits coming from  countries you can depend on getting reliable security checks (Canada, Europe, Australia, NZ) I would let them enlist as individuals in the US military.  On moral and practical grounds I would be against the forming of a separate unit. Morally if the US goes to war we should be willing to shed our own blood.  Just because it would be politically easier to deploy a unit like this doesn't make it right.  I know the reference to Rome was just an exaggeration but forming a foreign recruited unit for high-risk missions is a step in that direction. Don't the British sometimes face the charges, â Å“ Oh Yea, the British will fight to the last _______(Fill in the Blank-Scotsman, Irishmen, Australian)  On practical grounds it is just easier all round to let them enlist in regular US units.  Why create some new unit when you don't have to. 

For recruits coming from countries were it would be more difficult to get a dependable security check it may be useful to form them into a separate force.  They could join a US led and equipped peacekeeping force.  Peacekeeping will be a task that the US may have to undertake, more and more. This new force would be regional recruited. Drawn form the region where it serves it would be cultural sensitive to the different troubles of the area.  Using a recent example: a force made up of recruits from Africa could have been sent into Liberia to serve as peacekeepers. 

I'm guessing that charges of Imperialism would be thrown around.  To answer that, I would make it part of the force's charter that it be used only as part of an international sanctioned peacekeeping effort.  In case of Liberia this could be the UN, the African Union, or the Economic Community of West African States. 

Organizationally, I would have some separation between this force and the regular US military.  Security concerns would be less and the separation would allow for the development of a â Å“peacekeepingâ ? mindset for the force rather than the â Å“war winningâ ? mindset that the regular US military needs to fight and win wars.  The force would have strong medical and engineering elements to help in its peacekeeping role.  Even when not deployed to a hotspot, it could be useful in Aid operations in the region.  This may also reduce resistance to the formation of this type of force.

One real interesting idea I saw years ago was because of the UK's deep cuts in the number of Gurkha regiments, they Gurkhas could sign on with the US.  The proposal had the US commissioning a number of ex-British officers to command them.  The colors of old Gurkha regiments would be uncased and serve with the US military.  Interesting idea but I don't know how the Gurkhas would feel about serving someone other than the crown.  Also there might be some legal issues with India.
 
It is still a bad idea.

Integrate them into US Army or USMC Regular units.  If they cannot adapt to the "Melting Pot" of the Army, they cannot adapt to being a US Citizen. 

By all means, open the doors to select Auslanders, but integrate them IMMEDIATELY.

Tom
 
Sherwood4459:

Your ideas sounds a lot like the CF on steroids equipped with nifty gear.  The whole peecekeeping idea does not fly well with the US.  Neither does the UN right now.  The US currenlty still has quite a few issues with the UN and does not regard it as highly as other governments such as Canada.

PJ D-Dog
 
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