I can't belive this has not been instituted before. Not only does this provide advantages for the army, but the it provides away to get conservatives to accept immigrants more easily.

By sending them to die in foreign(for them and the US) wars? I'm reminded of the scene in Gangs of New York where Amsterdam is getting off the ship and the Army is there enlisting people right on the dock.

I think this kind of policy reeks of Imperialism.

Unless that article is dated 1862, the verb tense is wrong.

The US Military has offered a "path to citizenship" for over a hundred years through naturalization law that isn't under the control of the US Military.

Note that the article even mentions said law, pointing out a 2002 change, passed by Congress and signed by Bush.

The French have done this for years via the Foreign Legion. We Brits do it to a more limited extent with the Gurkhas and the Commonwealth nations. Russia offers citizenship to recruits from the former Soviet Empire. Frankly I am surprised it took the US, a nation built on immigration, so long to come up with this.

The idea behind this is not immigration but empire. The countries you mention have or still do identify with the latter, the US less so.

Very starship troopers-y..