Joining U.S. military a "fast track" to U.S. citizenship

Thank you, excellent post.

Citizenship for service is the carrot they dangle from the stick they will use to beat you later.

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This was in the 90s, but my son’s pediatrician was from Switzerland. He got US citizenship by serving in the US army as a doctor for x number of years

The fastest track to becoming a US citizen is depositing $1,000,000 in a US bank.

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The whole concept of “citizenship” is it’s something valuable that some people have and other people don’t have

It’s a basis for discrimination and inequality that most people are okay with

If your passport is the wrong color armed men will literally hunt you down and put you in a camp

and oh it’s hereditary

It’s all dark side :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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Do-you-have-flag

Then there’s how that imaginary line was drawn in the first place.

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So do they get a set of bronze plaques at the end to prove their claims?

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Do they REALLY get to be US citizens super quick? Or just get a green card and become US Nationals? Because back in the day, the only real advantage of being in the military was that even when you were sent overseas, all the time counted as “time spent in the US towards the minimum required to get citizenship.” ISTR a friend of mine pointing out that somebody in his unit had to swear in as a US citizen to get a promotion because there was a hard rank limit for green card holding US nationals.

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When I entered the USAF in the early 80s I had 4 Philippino nationals in my basic training flight. This was before the US left Subic & Clark (so the U.S. still had a major military presence there but back then joining the US armed forces was the best way for english speaking foreign nationals to gain U.S. citizenship and I met many more either on their way to or having obtained it while I was in the USAF.

The U.S. isn’t currently in any major conflict so I’m unable to see where exactly the author imagines the U.S. shipping people off to die in combat. Vermont?

That the author is just now learning that this exists when it has existed for longer than he has lived speaks to more to his limited knowledge than to any nefarious intent to “make immigrants die for the U.S.A.”.

As for Trump’s deporting Vets, they were among his more despicable acts IMO.

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Syria? Niger? Cameroon? Somalia? Yemen? (etc.)
Just because the US isn’t in a declared war with anyone right now, doesn’t mean they’re not fighting in countries all over the world.

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Join the US military.
See the world.
Meet interesting people.
And kill them.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/whv674/starship_troopers_propaganda/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

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You’re late to the party. The Starship Troopers memes start with the first words of the original post.

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How about making military service the criteria for any USian political office above municipal government. Have an escalating scale of combat deployment requirements as the political office becomes more powerful/consequential? I’m not a warmonger but if your country uses the military as a major tool of diplomacy, make the policymakers have firsthand experience in the human costs.

On the one hand, yes, I like it. I’m quite tired of people who aren’t in danger telling other people to go die for them.

OTOH, it could easily act as an unwanted filter and make it easier to gain office if you lack fear and compassion, i.e. if you have psychopath traits.

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How does that differ from the current state of American politics? I realize there are truly dedicated public servants that are also politicians but see many that are grifters and some that probably qualify as psychopaths.

It could make non-psychopaths less likely to apply.

I’m assuming the traits of recklessness and lack of compassion would mean the usual concerns about signing up would be a non-issue for a psychopath. Of course, there’s the matter of having to do what other people tell you which might be a bigger impediment than for most, so not sure.

ETA: In other words, I’m concerned that a prerequisite of military service would filter out those with high levels of compassion or risk assessment skills.

I do like the compulsory service model in Germany in the 90s. You had to do either military service or some sort of public-good service (there were lists).

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Recalling how WWI and WW2 US-born Black servicepeople weren’t treated (again) like US citizens once they returned home, maybe they can do things right this time.

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Back in the 1980s, I took an Architectural History class from a German-born professor. He openly admitted that he fought with the Wehrmacht during WW2. He then joined the US Army at the end of the war, after ending his time as a POW, to gain citizenship and to take advantage of the GI Bill to go to college. And then the Korean War happened. Safe to say he paid his dues.

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… if we’re improving the Constitution I bet we can come up with a bunch of other stuff to fix before we get to “how about more militarism” :confused:

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