Guns-n-Passports

Last week I came across an application form for the full US citizenship (made for Green Card holders), in which a page is listed with "Yes" or "No" boxes for which you have to tick "Yes" in order to qualify to be considered. One of the questions included, something like, "I am willing to bear arms and be called up to defend the country in the event of an armed conflict". Being a pacifist, if I were to apply (for which I have no intention to), I am very inclined to tick "No", at the risk of being rejected by the high and mighty US authorities above. The idea of being conscripted to defend your country is very foreign to me, as is the idea of citizens legally owning guns (the second amendment of the US constitution). Britain abolished military conscription in the 1960s and China, due to its population over-size, does not implement this system, at least not for its city folk. On top of this, I simply don't understand the wars America now rages and, for that matter, many foreign conflicts America has dabbed its fingers in for the last 50 years.

Which brings me to Sunday morning, when I was browsing through the New York Times, to find that the US army is now so desperately short of troops that they are willing to grant citizenship within 6 months, even to temporary US Visa holders (like me) if they join America's call to arms and serve in the US armed forces. The first thing that pops into my head is: if you are from a country outside of America and you have seen what utter failure America's fighting has brought on foreign soil, just in the last eight years alone (because you have not yet been brainwashed by Fox and MSNBC), why in your damn mind, would you still want to join America's armies and fight more stubborn wars, bringing more potential devastation, sometimes even to your former countries?". Maybe there really are desperate people still ferociously in need of becoming US citizens. I'm thinking the illegal aliens/asylum seeking refugees/Mexicans. Or maybe they get a kick out of joining the army to go "travelling", shoot up "terrorists" and find camaraderie, because life without conflict is just too boring. With rising unemployment, joining the army suddenly seems not such a bad idea for most people with their heads spinning around, lost in mortgage debt.

Maybe I'm missing the point and patriotism - of which I know nothing about - being so ingrained in American culture (or any sovereign state), has such a strong power over people that it drives them to go kill themselves. But wait, haven't we seen this before? Didn't the Romans conscript foreign nationals into the Roman Legion, and grant them citizenship after honorable discharge, ordained by Emperor Claudius in 89BC? If memory from my primary school days serves me right, the Roman army simply became over-stretched across vast areas of Europe and North Africa before the Republic imploded and collapsed. Surely the American army is on the verge of the exact same thing today.