On 1/19/06, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> Jim wrote:
>
> >> The only government workers that capitalists find truly
> >> indispensable are probably soldiers. ... in the long run, you
> >> might be able to replace Americans by Mexicans, etc.: from citizen
> >> soldiers to citizen-to-be soldiers. :->
> >
> > that's not outside the realm of possibility. After all, can't a non-
> > citizen gain citizenship by serving in the armed forces? (This
> > doesn't apply to "illegals.")
>
>
> Permanent residents can get their naturalization expedited through
> military service, but, still, immigrants aren't a big part of the
> military -- only about 2.6% in 2003 (cf. <http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/
> natsec/RL31884.pdf>).
>
> Here's a story that shows how desperate for recruits the Army has
> become: "the U.S. Army, which missed its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal,
> said on Wednesday it has raised the maximum enlistment age for new
> soldiers by five years to 39, greatly expanding its pool of potential
> recruits" (Will Dunham, "U.S. Army Raises Maximum Age for
> Enlistment," 18 Jan. 2006 <http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/
> N18239519.htm>). Pretty soon, a majority of LBO-talk subscribers
> will be eligible!
>
> It would make sense for Congress to allow the Army to reach out to
> los sin papeles, who have far more incentives to join the military in
> return for citizenship than permanent residents do, but it hasn't and
> probably won't.
>
> The ruling class used not to have any qualms about raising an army
> out of their empire's colonial subjects. Ho Chi Minh wrote: "No
> longer having absolute confidence in the white soldiers, who are more
> or less contaminated by the idea of classes, French militarism uses
> African and Asian natives in their stead. Out of 159 regiments in the
> French Army, 10 are composed of colonial whites, i.e., semi-natives,
> 30 of Africans and 39 of natives from other colonies. One half of the
> French army is thus recruited in the colonies" ("The Counter-
> Revolutionary Army," La Vie Ouvriere, 7 Sep. 1923, <http://
> www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/
> 1923/09/07.htm>). I suppose that replicating that is no longer
> possible, now that almost all former colonies are politically
> independent and nationalism is part of common sense worldwide.
>
>
> Yoshie Furuhashi
> <http://montages.blogspot.com>
> <http://monthlyreview.org>
> <http://mrzine.org>
>
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>
-- Jim Devine
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin