Military service has long been one route to U.S. citizenship. Now the Army and Navy, in need of specialists and language skills in wartime, are speeding things up by allowing recruits to wrap up the process while they're still in basic training.

Army, Navy add citizenship option to boot camp by Susanne M. Schafer, Associated Press, Apr 21, 2011

The thing is, no one is looking at the cost of these citizenship grants as part of the total cost of the Neo-crusades in the Middle East. Prior to western commitment to foreign oil, the Middle East was a cultural and economic backwater. I think it was a huge mistake to fail to develop US energy reserves in the 50's and 60's-and fail to put incentives in place for serious innovation in the area of energy development.

The thing is: I saw this article at the same time my son is scheduled to go to a party this Friday that will be gathering routine necessities for US soldiers in Afghanistan. I'm also hearing horror stories from someone close to me that works in a Seattle obstetrics ward about how US military families are being treated.

I think is is wrong for oil companies to make huge profits at the expense of US tax payers and US military families-they should pay the real costs associated with keeping Middle Eastern oil flowing-including the costs of these citizenship grants and decent conditions for US soldiers.