g m g D e s i g n . c o m

This is a very good idea:

[A program meant to beef up military enrollment by guaranteeing US citizenship for military service]  was authorized without fanfare late last year by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to attract temporary immigrants who speak strategically important languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Korean. The bait: The soldiers could immediately apply for U.S. citizenship, skipping the sometimes decadelong process of securing a green card first.

So many Koreans have applied, however, that the Army doesn’t need them all.

While some people scream that our country is being “diluted” (whatever that hell that’s supposed to mean), I argue that this is a very good idea. No nation in the world that exists (or has ever existed) integrates disparate groups and cultures better than the United States. Arabs in this country are freer and wealthier than Arabs in the middle east. Asians in America are better off than Asians in their ancestral homelands. Ditto for Latin Americans.

No one beats America at integrating multifarious people groups and cultures.

Citizenship following military service is just another win-win outcome that serves our strategic interests & theirs.

From the WSJ:

Mr. Gates, who believes that future wars will involve conflicts more like those in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than taking on superpowers such as China or Russia, is using one of his most potent weapons—the annual budget—to quickly bring about changes in how the Pentagon arms for conflict.

Yes, obviously, the US and China aren’t going to war. That would wreck both of our interconnected economies (oh yeah, and we both have nukes). The “war” is with the visionary head of DoD (Gates) and Congress, who derive thousands of jobs developing unneeded “big war” items rather than spending more judiciously on things our troops actually need.

Per the WSJ. This is a good move. We already have a powerful nuclear deterrent against the Chinese boogeyman (you know, those “Commies”). We can save billions per year–or at least better spend billions per year–by purchasing stuff that helps our troops rather than blowing billions on exotic weapons systems (that, again, are much less scary to adversaries than nuclear warheads, which actually have a good track record for deterring head-to-head conflict).

Of course, Gates will have to please the idiots in Congress who will lose out in bribes campaign contributions from big government contractors.

UPDATE: Geo-political visionary Thomas Barnett weighs in on Gates’s decision.