The American Spectator

p> LEGIONNAIRE’S DISEASE br> Re: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder’s An American Foreign Legion : /p>

The mindset that inspired the organization of the first Foreign Legion is the same mindset that gave birth to most of the world’s political and cultural conflicts whose consequences we are confronting today.

A Legion of expendables would be, as it has been in the past, a temptation to cynical adventurism and opportunism, as well as a political risk in its own right, as the Legion proved to be in its mutiny in Algeria.

p>As it stands foreigners who intend to immigrate are accepted into the U.S. military; they should be accepted on the same basis as natural-born soldiers, and not as dispensable cannon-fodder. br> — Daniel McEnroe /p>

I read “An American Foreign Legion” carefully, twice — and I have a couple of comments.

First, this is not a new idea — I recall it popping up from time to time during the Vietnam War. It never went anywhere then, and I doubt that it will do better now. While America may be a de facto Empire, we do not view ourselves that way at all — and the American people will not support anything as reminiscent of the old Colonial powers as a “Foreign Legion.”

Second, having said that we will not support it, I will note that we do, in fact, have a great many foreign-born soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. The ranks of the Army’s Special Forces were well-populated with foreign-born soldiers, even a few from France! (I served on an A-Team with a former Legionnaire from Corsica, in fact). This continues to the present day.