Having legal residents is not a bad idea. Encourages participation and they live here. Overseas, that just sounds dumb.

There are a lot of people who would be willing to serve four years in order to be fast-tracked for American citizenship. As long as they put some controls into effect (only a certain percentage recruited, spread evenly throughout the military, good background checks to exclude terrorists, etc.) then this probably isn't the worst idea the military has ever had. It sure beats a draft.

I'm not sure this is going to fly. It seems kind of strange to recruit people from another country who have never been to the U.S. to defend the U.S. Wouldn't that technically make them mercenaries?

In response to southboca:I agree that there needs to be some sort of checks put into place. If we are going to have illegals come here anyways we should let the ones who are willing to die for America become citizens.

Not necessarily if we are able to recruit the people from another country and keep a watch on them, we may probably get benefit from it.

Hey sweetnothing: We already sort of do this--immigrants who join the army get fast-tracked to citizenship. However, the issue here is a little bit different. They are talking about sending army recruiters to other countries to find people who want to join the U.S. military. These can be people who have never set foot in America.

In response to teammate:We could use these foreigners on the front line to draw the fire of our enemies. Sounds brilliant to me!

Re Black Widow: You want to make all the foreigners Marines? When I was in college they had the lowest IQ requirement and the highest physical fitness requirement. They also tended to be first line of defense.

For everyone on this board who's a marine, retire marine, mother or friend of a marine: I'm JOKING, JOKING, JOKING. ... Please don't kill me.

Kat, not funny, Black Widow, just messed up. We shouldn't recruit anybody that doesn't have a vested interest in this country. Otherwise we could wind up with a french division that would be deticated to surrendering.

Re: Dasuit. What? It's OK to make fun of the French army, but not the U.S.?

Re: Dasuit. You are very funny. The French already floated this idea in the form of the Foreign Legion. Approx. 90% of its commissioned officers are French. (That's the safeguard.) The rest of the Legion is made up of men from a wide variety of nationalities. French citizens represent only 25-35% of the Legionnaires. The foreign volunteers are primarily European.

In response to Kat: If you wish to compare the french military to our guys, you are out of line. So, no. It is not funny to compare US Marines to idiots, or joke that a lower IQ will get you into the military. John Kerry did the same thing and he ate it for it like he should have. I have no idea if you ever served or not, (doubt it) but if you did you would understand. Our soldiers, sailors, and airmen are doing the best job that they can with the tools that they have. To have someone like you insult their intelligence, then say "JOKING, JOKING, JOKING" is BS. You owe an appolgy to every one in this country that has served in uniform.

In response to southboca:But how good is their armed forces?

Re Dasuit: Allow me to clarify. I'll use short words so you understand. #1. I didn't say Marines were dumb. I did say had the lowest IQ req of the armed forces. I wasn't joking about that. It was true, at least when I was in college. #2. I wasn't ever in the military. But I was a military wife. My husband was Special Forces. #3. What I was joking about was that it would be a good idea to replace our current Marines with a bunch of foreigners. #4 If you're gonna poke fun at other countries' armies don't get all pissy when someone does the same to the U.S. army.

Re sweetnothing: You've gotta be kidding me. The non-French French Army (aka the French Foreign Legion) is the stuff legends are made of. In the 1860s in Mexico, 62 soldiers and 3 officers were attacked and surrounded by nearly 2,000 Mexicans. The French Foreign Legion mounted their defense at Hacienda Camarón. They fought without food and water. They fought until there were out of ammo. Then they fought hand to hand. They fought until there were only three men standing and then negotiated pretty good terms of surrender: They kept their weapons, their flag, and the body of Capitaine Danjou. The Mexican Colonel that they surrendered to said something along the lines of "I can refuse nothing to men like you."