Confirmed: American troops in Gaza
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Matthew Miller from the State Department gave a somewhat curious press conference yesterday:
Six Americans killed since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel - State Department (Reuters 11/20/2023)
Can American citizens serve as members of a foreign military? Something seems very off about that.
If that is the case, I can't be the first one to think that the US could just pump any number of troops in by changing the velcro patch on their shoulder and saying, "Abracadabra, you're IDF now!"
No one the press conference asked for clarification, of course.
Not sure if you've seen the Hamas cyber hack, they say they found that many Americans and Europeans are serving with the IDF. The hack was for those serving in the north of Palestine at the Lebanese border. The name samples they released are mostly Jewish though.
Oh, I had no doubt that there are Americans in uniform, out of uniform, in Palestinian civvies, in Palestinian uniform, etc, all over Israel.
But what was weird to me was for Miller to casually say "Americans" were IDF. He can't possibly mean "ethnic Americans", there being no such thing. He could only possibly mean American citizens.
That being the case, how is that consonant with them being IDF? The oath of citizenship states:
So what's the out? They're natural-born citizens and never took the oath, and that somehow naturalized citizens are under obligations the natural-born are not?? Or is it that they weren't IDF at the time they took the oath, they just swore allegiance later?
I can;t imagine that if an American was a member of the IRGC or SVR or PRC or DPRK or any other combo of letters that that would be okay with any US combo of letters. Seems like they'd flip the fuck out.
I think maybe everyone is just so discombobulated as to what the rules are, if any, that they just don;t notice these things any more.