In an article on Joe Lieberman’s latest proposal for addressing the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations, Kasie Hunt of Politico notes the following:

Lieberman plans to introduce a bill that would amend a decades-old law aimed at yanking citizenship from U.S. citizens who fight for a foreign military. … There is one exception to the existing law: Americans are allowed to serve in the Israel Defense Forces without losing their citizenship.

I wonder how long this provision has been in place. Before the United States entered both the First World War and the Second World War, a number of U.S. citizens volunteered to serve in the British and French militaries, and of course a number of noted American leftists and anarchists volunteered to serve the loyalist cause during the Spanish Civil War. One wonders if the exception to the existing law extended to the IDF should also be extended to allied militaries in, say, Europe and East Asia.

Here’s a thought experiment: as far as the People’s Republic of China is concerned, Taiwan is a province held by armed rebels. To be sure, the PRC tolerates a Taiwanese presence in various international organizations under various euphemisms — the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Kinmen, and Matsu, etc. — and there have been cross-straits negotiations, etc. But how would the Chinese react if U.S. citizens were allowed to serve in the ROC armed forces?

Of course, the thrill-seeking young Americans who might have joined the Lafayette Escadrille in an earlier era can find plenty of combat by serving in the U.S. military, so that presumably mitigates the problem.