Ted Rall for February 19, 2009
February 09, 2009
February 21, 2009
Transcript:
Desperate for recruits, the U.S. military is offering citizenship to foreigners who join the American Foreign Legion. (Man Are you good enough to do a job no one else wants?) This is their story. (Man: This is your big day, legionnaires! The bad guys are up that ridge. Let's take 'em out!!) (Man 2: Que dijo?) (Man 3: Quai? Nous sommes dans le desert! Pourquoi il parle, ce quai?) (Man 4: Toten sie jeden ich sehe?!) They died the way they lived: Brave, gallant and linguistically diverse.
HUMPHRIES about 15 years ago
Rall really understands the situation … yeah right.
believecommonsense about 15 years ago
whoa, this is a bitter toon
HUMPHRIES about 15 years ago
Screwed, don’t think so. BCS, yes over reactive but you’d be amazed at the amount of servicemen who are non US citizen.
OtisIzaltumuch about 15 years ago
Historical footnote: In World War I, many recruits from the French countryside spoke only local patois, not French, and literally did not understand their officers orders (per Graham Robb in “The Discovery of France”). Of course they all got slaughtered anyway, regardless of their language skills - c’est la guerre!
CorosiveFrog Premium Member about 15 years ago
^There are local patois in french, variations of the same language but the vast majority of those who speak it can also understand regular french. I’m not even from France, I’m from Atlantic Canada (Acadian) so I spoke acadian french as a kid but even back then I could very well understand regular french like you guys can understand UK english. At most, you will chuckle at that weird, foreign accent but you get the idea.
believecommonsense about 15 years ago
so Humphs, Rall is saying he’s against recruiting foreigners to the services in return for citizenship because why? and your opinion is? I’m genuinely interested because when I read about this, I thought it was a good idea, but I’ve never served in the military and genuinely want thoughtful opinions from those who have …
Lavocat about 15 years ago
Life as farce.
I see that the American empire is taking yet another page from the Roman empire.
In a way, it’s like an uber-Reality TV show: “Who Wants To Run The Gauntlet To Become An American Citizen (With PTSD)!?”
HUMPHRIES about 15 years ago
fennec, served with several soldiers in RVN who were taking the service/citizenship route. There were some that indeed reduced their waiting time. We even had a swearing in ceremony for a couple of soldiers in the unit next to mine. … PS Also know of a couple of these soldiers who paid the ultimate price and then citizenship waiting time became a non issue.