U.S. Military Considers Adding More Noncitizen Soldiers

With the loss of about 3-5 U.S. soldiers in Iraq each day, with about another 172 wounded each day, or the loss of about U.S. Army battalion a month, U.S. military recruiters are allowing more and more compromises to normal military recruiting qualifications. There are now rumors that the next step will be the use of more noncitizen recruits.

Some minor criminal backgrounds are being excused. Older soldiers are now allowed to enlist up to the age of 42 from the previous cutoff at age 35. And more noncitizen military recruits are now under consideration. For some noncitizens this could result in a faster path to citizen as a recruiting lure. So far in Iraq, 300 Hispanics, both citizens and not have lost their lives. If a faster path to citizenship is offered to deal with manpower shortages for the continued polce efforts in Iraq, then more Hispanics and others may join the U.S. military, but risk their lives for a country some may not even be a citizen of.