Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin proposed a solution last month to the military recruiting crisis: his answer to the inability of our military to recruit and retain enough service members was to begin enlisting “undocumented migrants.”
Unlike other programs that have allowed legal immigrants to earn full citizenship after a period of honorable military service, this program would reward individuals who entered the country illegally with a path to citizenship and military benefits.
This concept is one of the worst ideas that has emerged as a solution to the recruiting problem in the last two years. The proposal not only fails to address the real causes of the recruiting crisis. such as undeclared forever wars, Marxist indoctrination in public schools, and the purge of Christians and conservatives in the military, but the proposal creates a huge security risk. Anyone with a basic understanding of national security policy or history would assume his proposal was satirical, but sadly it appears he was serious.
The practical problem
There is no shortage of parallels from the fall of the Roman Empire to the current status of the United States military. Overextended by trying to support military forces and infrastructure throughout the known world, Roman politicians implemented a program of enlisting mercenaries and foreign fighters in the legions. Historians have written that the Latin word for soldier evolved into barbarus as a reflection of the overwhelming number of non-Romans that were serving in the military.
Little effort was made to Romanize these foreign fighters. Not only did the lack of loyalty to Rome and poor understanding of Roman ideals lead to declining effectiveness of the legions on the battlefield, it eroded trust in the military by everyday citizens. The ultimate outcome of this policy was that Roman soldiers abandoned their posts and actually joined with invaders from their home nations during the final days of the fall of Rome.
The unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants into the United States has made any form of vetting for security risks impossible. This reality, combined with the ongoing bureaucratic inefficiency of the Pentagon, is a recipe for disaster. With no concept of who is entering the United States or the risk they present to our national security, the threat is exponentially increased if we allow these unvetted immigrants to join the military and receive military training.
The military’s background check and security clearance programs are currently facing long backlogs. It normally takes a minimum of two months for a United States citizen with no foreign travel or associations and no criminal history to receive a security clearance. It takes significant time to conduct an investigation for anyone with significant foreign travel or associations, let alone for a non-citizen.
My first duty station as a military officer was Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, the home of Air Force basic training. During this assignment, I learned firsthand the significant problems within the Air Force vetting system. Over twenty years ago the systems in place were not nearly as backlogged as they are today, but it still took an average of twelve to twenty-four weeks for a security clearance to be completed. The result was that recruits would complete Air Force basic training and be well on the way to completing training for their military career field before the Air Force had fully obtained information to verify their identity or the extent of their possible criminal history.
As a military prosecutor, I participated in the criminal prosecution of individuals who had lied about their identity and background in order to fraudulently enlist in the military. One of these individuals had joined the United States Marines, completed Marine Corps training, deserted, and then assumed a new identity before enlisting in the Air Force. More concerning were the multiple recruits of Middle Eastern descent who were the sons of radical American Muslim clerics that fully completed Air Force Security Forces training without so much as a question of their loyalty to the United States or even an awareness of the security risk they presented.
If these security concerns are not enough, it is deeply troubling that rather than being taught the importance of the Constitution and the ideals that resulted in the founding and prosperity of the United States, today’s military recruits are bombarded with radical gender theory and taught that traditional American Christians are dangerous extremists once they enter the ranks.
The practical reality of welcoming illegal immigrants into the ranks is that we would recruit and train foreign nationals without identifying who they really are, their criminal history, or foreign ties and allegiances. Then, rather than teaching them American history and an appreciation for the Constitution and biblical principles that have made our nation great, they will be indoctrinated with anti-American ideology that has the potential to radicalize them into hating the United States and the American people.
The future
There are solutions to the military recruiting crisis that do not involve repeating the errors of the Roman Empire. The question is whether or not we have the political will to accurately diagnose and treat the problems in our education system and the military.
Setting aside the critical need to reassess the size and structure of our military, we must return our focus to recruiting and training the very best of our society to serve in the military. Most of those who serve are second-generation or third-generation service members who come from traditional conservative families and communities. Military service can and should be the most challenging and rewarding experience that a young citizen could desire. Rather than pursuing excellence and emphasizing combat training, military leaders and politicians continue to lower standards and place a lesser emphasis on lethality than diversity, equity, and inclusion. Conservative and patriotic American families no longer trust military leaders and have no desire to see their children serve in the military today.
When I attended Air Force officer training, I was told repeatedly and consistently that the job of the Air Force was “to break things and kill people.” It was that simple. Everything we did and learned was focused on that mission. Training officers with the capacity to further the Air Force mission of killing our enemies and destroying their ability to wage war was the only priority. Twenty years later, as I was finishing my career, I was more likely to attend training about the importance of “proper pronoun” usage than the history of the military or combat tactics.
Rather than relying on foreign nationals and illegal immigrants to fill the ranks, we should first determine the appropriate size and structure of our military. Then we must return to the basic principles that made our military the most effective and powerful in the world. If children are taught Marxist principles in government schools, as well as taught to hate America, Christianity, and our founding fathers, it should be no surprise that younger generations are not interested in volunteering to serve and sacrifice for a nation they have been taught to hate.
High standards, accountability, and a deep understanding of American principles and freedom are the greatest motivators for military service. These ideals are what make citizens willing to lay down their lives to preserve our nation. It is not too late to save our military and ensure national security, but trading a recruiting crisis for a loyalty crisis is not the answer.
