Al Jazeera: US using 40,000 immigrants as front line troops in Iraq

[wwwyearzeroorg]

Nearly 40,000 of America's frontline soldiers are not US citizens.
Many of the troops on duty in Iraq do not count English as their first language and would prefer to take orders in their native tongue ... usually Spanish.

http://english.aljazeera.net/Articles/News/GlobalNews/US+attacked+over+green+card+soldiers.htm

[Paschall]

1. Your link is broken

But the European press reported months ago that 10% of US troops in Iraq are not US citizens. That would be considerably less than the 40,000 figure used here. And considerably higher than the overall percentage of immigrants in the services, if I remember the stats from the DoD or State Department that I read then.

[Scurrilous]

2. The article claims

..... " Nearly 40,000 of America's frontline soldiers are not US citizens," but when it comes to naming exactly how many of these non-citizen soldiers are fighting in Iraq, the article never really gives an exact number. I think the figure of 40,000 is for the total number of non-citizen troops, not the number of those serving in Iraq.

[wwwyearzeroorg]

3. ah

http://english.aljazeera.net

[baldguy]

4. So what?

The US armed forces, espcially the US Army has a long history of accepted legal residents into thier ranks, no matter what thier actual citizenship is. Also, many become naturalised US citizens while they serve. Remember who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Clinton? Gen. John Shalikashvili was born in Poland.

America is a nation of immigrants. Our armed forces reflect this.