Does anyone think offering accelerated citizenship to foreigners to join the military to make up for the recruiting shortage is a good idea?:

 The Air Force has graduated its first group of airmen who became American citizens during basic training as part of an accelerated naturalization process, which the service hopes will help solve recent difficulties in recruiting.

Fourteen foreign-born men and women who joined the Air Force were naturalized during several weeks of basic training this month at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, the service said. They graduated from basic training and signed their U.S. Certificate of Citizenship on Wednesday.

“I will always be grateful for every opportunity I have here in the best country of the world,” said Airman 1st Class Natalia Laziuk, a member of the inaugural group and a native of Russia.

The enhanced process lets foreign-born recruits settle legal citizenship requirements immediately upon entering basic training. During seven and a half weeks, they can supply all the needed paperwork, take the citizenship test and satisfy other requirements to become naturalized Americans by the time that they graduate.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I think if the recruits are already in the process of getting their citizenship I don’t have any issues with it. However, I think what we do need to be careful of is offering citizenship to foreigners to join the military that are not even eligible for citizenship. If a country can’t recruit its own citizens to defend it, is it still a country still worth defending? With that said I believe the current recruiting shortages are caused by self inflicted issues that can be fixed.

By the way I recommend everyone read what happened to the Roman military when it allowed large masses of foreigners to fill their ranks to make up for their recruiting shortages. It did not end well. Fortunately the U.S. military is no where near the issues Rome had, but what will it be like a hundred years from now if cutting military benefits and increasingly using foreigners to fill recruiting shortages becomes a popular way to fill the military?

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

South Korea is a much better location than China to be building a Gigafactory. The Chinese government is already meddling in Tesla operations in Shanghai. Tesla would likely be free of such meddling with a South Korea based plant:

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday and asked for his investment in a gigafactory in South Korea, a presidential official said.

The meeting took place at Musk’s request during Yoon’s state visit to the United States, according to senior presidential secretary for economic affairs Choi Sang-mok.

Yoon said South Korea boasts world-class manufactured robots and an advanced labor force, making it an ideal location to run a gigafactory.

“Should Tesla decide to invest, we will provide active support in terms of location, workforce and taxes,” he was quoted as saying.

Musk responded that he expects to pay a visit to South Korea, saying the country remains an interesting and leading candidate to host a gigafactory, according to Choi.

Yoon also voiced hope for greater cooperation between South Korean businesses and SpaceX, a U.S. spacecraft company headed by Musk, to help foster South Korea’s space industry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If China would quit threatening Taiwan with naval blockades and firing missiles over the country than the U.S. would not need to send personnel to help train them in the first place:

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) conducts a routine Taiwan Strait transit on April 16, 2023. (U.S. Navy)

China warned against continued U.S.-Taiwan cooperation Wednesday, responding to reports that the U.S. military was sending officers to help train Taiwan’s counterparts and that a delegation of defense contractors would visiting the self-ruled island next week.

“We resolutely oppose the U.S. having any form of official or military contact with China’s Taiwan region,” Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a weekly press briefing in Beijing.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is an extremely odd story coming out of JBLM:

Lt. Col. Meghann Sullivan takes the 5th Battalion, 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade guidon at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, June 28, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joseph Knoch)

A top officer in the Army‘s 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade has been investigated following allegations of multiple sexual assaults and a pattern of sexual harassment, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. It is unclear whether the investigation is ongoing, but it comes while another is underway into allegations of toxic leadership by the brigade’s commander.

Col. Meghann Sullivan, commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 5th SFAB, faces allegations of assaulting at least two subordinate men and harassing several others, with some of those incidents allegedly tied to alcohol abuse, according to one of the two sources. At least one of those alleged assaults involved forceful kissing and another grabbing a man below the belt without his consent.

Military.com

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty easy call for the White House because the American public will be calling for North Korea to be turned into a glowing parking lot of they fired nuclear weapons at South Korea and the U.S. troops stationed there:

 South Korea and the United States agreed to take “swift, overwhelming and decisive” action using all of their military capabilities, including U.S. nuclear weapons, in the event of North Korea’s nuclear attack, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday.

Yoon made the remark during a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden following their summit talks at the White House, outlining a joint statement, dubbed the “Washington Declaration”, that they adopted to strengthen “extended deterrence” against the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.