American Foreign Legion

William Astore is a former Air Force officer who also taught at the Air Force Academy. He is saddened by what he sees as the conversion of our military into something very much akin to the French Foreign Legion. He sees it in our recruitment in the barrios and other places "natives" stay away from and in the absence of many of our best and brightest from serving in the military. He sees it in the increasing reliance on private military contractors. He sees it in the multiple deployments of our troops. He sees it in the abandonment of the notion of national sacrifice in times of war.

He asks, " Now, approaching our eighth year in Afghanistan and sixth year in Iraq, what exactly is that force defending?"