Max Boot, one of Sen. McCain’s foreign policy advisors, again flacks his idea of recruiting for our armed forces among illegal aliens and foreigners abroad, in an American version of the foreign legion. This part I didn’t know:

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has it within his power with the stroke of a pen to waive the Green Card requirement for enlistment. He should do it now. Otherwise the army in particular will have a hard time attracting all the high-quality volunteers that it needs, not only to fill today’s force but also the larger force we need to build for the future.

This seems to suggest that Gates can unilaterally adopt a policy to recruit foreigners without legal residency into the military — is this true? If anyone has details, please let me know.

Something else I’d like to know is whether Sen. McCain agrees with his advisor that we should legalize illegals via military service, and recruit abroad for a foreign legion. McCain’s obviously not responsible for everything said by someone giving him advice, but it is a foreign policy proposal Boot has been prominently associated with for some time, so the next time the senator has a conference call with conservative bloggers, maybe someone should ask him.