this one won"t sit well with the bleeding heart liberals, but we have the numbers sitting illegally in America right now. How about service to country in exchange for citizenship? Say 3 tour deployments. First it gets them off our social welfare rolls and provides new tax payers. Second, we don't need to be in Afghanistan which is a tribal society that lives a hard but simple life and has no clue as to what democracy is or even cares. they just want to live in peace and provide for their families. If al-queida wants to build camps there then let them and bomb them from afar, thus depleting there financial resources. third, Bremmer had no plan in Iraq and the rest of us are paying for it now and will be for a long time. Iran is buying Iraq through investment in Iraq. The US has not invested in the Iraqi economy, we just filter hundreds of millions of dollars from the tax payers into private US companies that are non-performing in Iraq.

You might find this shocking, but this is already happening. Unfortunately, when recruiters tell these enlistees that they, and their families, will be able to gain citizenship for their service and sacrifice, it is often enough not true.

The good thing is, some of them die, and when they return (if they return), because the U.S. knows about them, they and their families are given the boot. That's an interesting solution to both the number problems AND the illegal immigrant problem, no?

Heartless... wow. You don't have to be a "bleeding heart liberal" to find that second paragraph from k84 absolutely disgusting. I really don't even know where to begin, so I will Ann Coulter it and say: you really need to just shut up until you grow a brain and figure out what America is about.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

rnbwflt, in case you didn't catch it, I was being sarcastic. I personally find it completely disgusting myself that our country happily exploits these people and then turns around and kicks them in the teeth when we are done with them. Here are young people serving our country, fighting and dying in a war that even the leaders who voted for the war (and the people who voted for those leaders) would never dream of sending their children to fight and die in, and all anyone can do is bad mouth them. Just like people who don't realize that many illegals pay taxes or speak English or have spent the vast majority of their lives in America.

I do know what America is about, or at least what the people who live in and run this country are about, and I find it incredibly disappointing to say the least, the kind of miscreants and buffoons I see around me.

So what makes you think that everyone who serves in the military is citizens? We have quite a bit of service members who are active duty who are in the process of getting their green cards and have been serving for almost 10 years to include infantry, communications techs, mechanics and the lists goes on and on just some food for thought.