Foreigners in the military

The French have the French Foreign Legion.  The British have the Gurkha Regiment.  Both of these foreign components to their respective armies are well known and renowned the world over for being hard as a coffin nail.

The Gurkha Regiment in the British Army dates back to the fighting between 1814–1816 when the Nepalese Gurkha army fought against the British East India Company army.  Fighting them to a stalemate, the British made a deal with the Nepalese to recruit from them and it all carried on from there.

As is evident by three Gurkha’s receiving the Military Cross from the Queen, and numerous times throughout history – these foreign soldiers who still are not regarded highly enough by the British Army are a valuable asset.

The French Foreign Legion are the tough nuts of the French military.  Granted they were used rather ruthlessly in Algeria, but now anytime France needs to flex its military might or get its citizens out of harms way they don’t send Pierre or Olivier from the Parisien suburbs.  It’s the dudes who wear the white hats.

Check the Related Links for an interesting news article about two identical twin brothers.  One joined the British Army; the other was refused and joined the French Foreign Legion where his acts of bravery and gallantry earned him France’s highest award for valour – the ‘Legion D’honneur’.

I am a perfect example of the point I am making.  I am a foreigner in the Canadian military and would at any point not hesitate to bear arms and defend Canada and its interests with my life, but yet there are huge amounts of Canadians who would not and are not bearing arms for Canada.

Foreigners searching for a meaningful and useful way to give back are an extremely valuable and untapped resource.  It would be nice seeing other nations across the globe taking advantage of that.

Canada could learn a valuable lesson

A few days ago I saw a news item from BBC News regarding the MOD’s Treasury request for five-hundred million pounds for new military troop vehicles.

I’m delighted to say our Treasury didn’t let our boys down – the British Treasury approved the request for funds for new armoured vehicles.

According to the News of the World, it will comprise 600 vehicles, including 100 heavily-armed, 4×4 Jackal patrol vehicles and 100 armoured logistics vehicles based on the Mastiff.

Now why in the hell can’t Canada’s Treasury, Prime Minister and most of it’s pussy-boy wimpish liberal twits comprising of its population learn from this and approve about a quarter of a billion dollars in funding for Canada’s military?