Catching More Flies With Honey

I had commented at several other blogs recently that in my insane li'l pea-brain I saw some connection between the recent illegal immigrant furor, the recent large scale raids on major employers, and the administration's need for more troops. I did try to temper my comments in the interest of not appearing a complete paranoid loon.

Lo and behold, this morning profmarcus tipped us off to this news article, Military considers recruiting foreigners. Gee golly whillikers, who'da thunk.

The proposal to induct more noncitizens, which is still largely on the drawingboard, has to clear a number of hurdles. So far, the Pentagon has been quiet about specifics -- including who would be eligible to join, where the recruiting stations would be, and what the minimum standards might involve, including
English proficiency. In the meantime, the Pentagon and immigration authorities have expanded a program that accelerates citizenship for legal residents who volunteer for the military.
And since Sept. 11, 2001, the number of immigrants in uniform who have become US citizens has increased from 750 in 2001 to almost 4,600 last year, according to military statistics.

Already, the Army and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security have "made it easier for green-card holders who do enlist to get their citizenship," Hilferty said.
Other Army officials, who asked not to be identified, said personnel officials are working with Congress and other parts of the government to test the feasibility of going beyond US borders to recruit soldiers and Marines.
Currently, Pentagon policy stipulates that only immigrants legally residing in the United States are eligible to enlist. There are currently about 30,000 noncitizens who serve in the US armed forces, making up about 2 percent of the active-duty force, according to statistics from the military and the Council on Foreign Relations. About 100 noncitizens have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A recent change in US law, however, gave the Pentagon authority to bring immigrants to the United States if it determines it is vital to national security. So far, the Pentagon has not taken advantage of it, but the calls are growing to take use the new authority.
Indeed, some top military thinkers believe the United States should go as far as targeting foreigners in their native countries.

Brilliant, simply brilliant. This was obviously predictable as evidenced by the fact that I myself, an ordinary and simple citizen with no special access to information beyond that of any other citizen was able to figger this one out.

I'm going to go out on a limb here.

Let's run with this strategy. Within it lies the solution to our quagmire in Iraq. We've been going at this thing all wrong while the answer lurked beneath our noses.

We've been focusing our efforts on training Iraqi soldiers when all along we should have been recruiting them. Rather than teach them our tribal strategies only to have them decide to use them for their tribes' goals which are often in direct opposition to our own let's just offer free memberships.

Taking into account our administrations recruitment goals and the population of able bodied young men in Iraq one would have to estimate that within a few short years of such an intensely directed recruitment drive there would be no more than a handful of Iraqis left to wage an insurgency. They'd all be Americans.

Naturally we would have to plan for the likely secession movement that would follow, should probably map out a plan for peaceful secession before we even begin. Save ourselves a headache.

Insane? Definitely, but is it really any more insane than what we've already been doing?