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Foreign citizens serving the US military, said the Boston Globe, is a highly charged up issue, which could expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially using "mercenaries" to defend the country.
Analysts have voiced concern that a large contingent of non-citizens under arms could jeopardise national security or reflect badly on Americans' willingness to serve in uniform. The idea of signing up foreigners who are seeking US citizenship is gaining ground as a way to address Pentagon's "critical need," while fully absorbing some of the roughly one million immigrants that enter the States legally each year, the report said.
The proposal to induct more non-citizens, which is still largely on the drawing board, 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.
Meanwhile, Pentagon and immigration authorities have expanded a programme that accelerates citizenship for legal residents who volunteer for the military, the report said.
Since September 11, 2001, the number of immigrants in uniform who became US citizens increased from 750 to almost 4,600 in 2005, the report said quoting military statistics.
Facing severe manpower strains because of the Iraq and Afghan wars and a mandate to expand the overall size of military, the Pentagon is under pressure to consider a variety of proposals involving foreign recruits, the Globe quoted a military affairs analyst as saying.
"It works as a military idea and it works in the context of American immigration," said Thomas Donnelly, a military scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington and a leading proponent of recruiting more foreigners to serve the military.
As the wars grind on, the Pentagon has warned Congress and the White House that the military is stretched "to the breaking point," the paper noted. Both President Bush and his new defence secretary Robert M. Gates have acknowledged that the total size of the military must be expanded to help reduce the strain on ground troops, many of whom have been deployed repeatedly in combat theaters.
However, it would take years and billions of dollars to recruit, train and equip the 30,000 troops and 5,000 Marines the Pentagon says it needs, the report said. The Army and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security have already "made it easier for green-card holders who do enlist to get their citizenship."