The Revenge Of The Mercenaries

choi

Strategy Page, Feb 13, 2014.
strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20140213.aspx

Quote:

"for Americans it is illegal to join a foreign military and those who do so and are found out can lose their American citizenship. For some countries there is a way to get around that, by offering Americans citizenship. Australia, for example, does this. So does the United States, for that matter. This is one reason why Americans prefer to join private security companies, where English is standard and nationality is not a problem.

"The recruiting offers [from Australia] are being sweetened with quick granting of Australian citizenship, often as little as three months. But for all that effort, Australia has only attracted 726 foreign recruits after six years of trying. Some required signing bonuses of nearly $200,000 to make the move. The foreigners amounted to about one percent of the troops.

"The most successful recruiter of foreigners have been the United States, which currently at peak strength recently had about 50,000 non-citizens [mostly permanent residents, though; US did recruit a couple thousands of foreigners on US soil a few years ago] in service (out of some 2.2 million active duty and reserve troops, about 2.2 percent of all troops). The navy, not the army, has the largest number (nearly half). That's something of a navy tradition, as hiring foreigners to serve on US warships is a custom that goes back over a century. Currently, the proportion of foreigners (about two percent) in the US military is historically low. It's been much higher in the past, often reaching 25 percent or more. This caused alarm, then as now, but there were never a lot of problems with uncertain loyalties.  In the last decade, some senior American officers suggested recruiting more foreigners. Not just non-citizens with green cards but foreigners who are not residents of the United States. This brought forth protests from those opposed to, well, whatever. Historically, the American military has usually had more foreigners in the ranks than it does now. During the American Civil War about twenty percent of the Union Army was foreign born troops. There were entire divisions of Irish, Germans, or Scandinavians. For the rest of the 20th century, the all-volunteer military continued to have a higher (than today) percentage of foreigners. Recruiting foreigners would enable the army to get more highly capable recruits and ones with needed foreign language and cultural awareness skills. * * * The American military pay and benefits are competitive with U.S. civilian occupations, but to most foreigners, these pay levels are astronomical. The risk has usually been low. For example only about one in a thousand foreign born volunteers died in Iraq or Afghanistan. All that and you get to become a citizen of the United States after your four year enlistment is up. The only question was which line would be longer at American embassies, the one for visas, or the one for military recruiting?

"And then there is Britain. Two centuries ago Gurkhas were first recruited into the British Indian army (not the British army). After India became independent in 1947 they too recruited Gurkhas for Indian infantry units. But service in the British army was considered a better deal. Britain has long recruited foreigners into its army and navy because there has always been a shortage of British citizens willing to serve. Currently, Gurkhas comprise about two percent of British troops and come from Nepal, a small country on the northern border that was never part of British India.

"Currently about 40 percent of the lone soldiers ['These are Jewish men (and some women) who are not Israeli but want to serve in the Israeli armed forces' and leave their families behind in their mother countries] are from America and Russia. Currently about three percent of active duty Israeli troops are “lone soldiers” and even more are foreign born but immigrated to Israel with their families.

"Then there is the French Foreign Legion [which 'dates from the 19th century'], which is supposed to be nothing but foreigners (except for the officers). But many French join, claiming to be from the French speaking parts of Belgium. No matter, if otherwise qualified, the 'Belgians' are signed up. Currently, Foreign Legionnaires comprise about two percent of French troops.

Note:
(a) "for Americans it is illegal to join a foreign military and those who do so and are found out can lose their American citizenship"

I do not know whether it is against federal law, but am sure US can not strip US citizenship because of that, or any other reasons (except those who commit immigration frauds)--thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment to US Constitution (concerning those born in US but not others who are naturalized).
(i) Afroyim v Rusk
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afroyim_v._Rusk
(ii) John Walker Lindh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_Lindh
(1981- ; "American Taliban;" in 2002 accepted plea bargain and was sentenced to 20 years)

was not stripped of citizenship.

(b) Gurkha
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha
(Their name derives from the Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath (8th century [but some believe 11th-12th century]); Gurkhas are closely associated with the Khukuri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife)

(c)
(i) French Foreign Legion
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion
(established in 1831; it is also open to French citizens, who amounted to 24% of the recruits as of 2007; section 1 History)
(ii) conscription in France
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_France

(d) "Mercenaries in the form of private security companies have become the bane of [military] recruiters trying to attract skilled veterans. * * * These [private security] firms pay more than the military and are selective, taking the best available personnel. It’s ironic that the mass media decided to demonize the security companies, despite the fact that their personnel were more professional, disciplined, mature and capable than the people in uniform."

"Bane" because military recruiters have to compete  with these companies for the untrained as well as veterans who may opt for early departure from the military.