From the ForeignPolicy.com blog:

I’ve got an idea for Sen. Allard’s the next Congressional hearing on the virtues and dangers of immigration. Call Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, to testify. Ask him if he could fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without the 33,000 non-U.S. citizens currently serving in the military. After all, it is Hispanic soldiers who, according to research by demographers at the University of Pennsylvania, are doing a disproportionately high percentage of the dying in Iraq.

There is, I think, a difference between being an American and being a U.S. Citizen. It may be just a semantic difference to some, but it isn’t to me. A day after 9/11, Le Monde published a headline: "Nous sommes tous Américains."

We are all Americans.

Being a U.S. Citizen means that you have a piece of paper – either a birth certificate or a certificate of naturalization, that grants you citizenship in this country, with all the rights and privileges thereof.

Being an American is something else altogether. Being an American is about a state of mind, a form of idealism, a sense of duty and of patriotism that transcends paperwork. You can be an American and not be a Citizen, and vice-versa. The two can be mutually exclusive.

The non-citizen soldiers – about 33,000 of them – serving in the Army today are not U.S. Citizens, but they are Americans. When Congress debates the issue of Immigration, it astounds me to see that the contributions of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of immigrants, both naturalized and not, are completely ignored in the face of the actions of 19 criminals.

In a society founded on principles of equality and justice, this treatment seems neither just nor equal. Congressmen and Senators, you would do well to remember that for many of us, being here is not just a matter of economic or political expedience – and even if it is, immigrants have contributed to this nation in many ways, either by serving in the military or in our civilian societies. We have given back to our cities and towns far more than many of our born-and-bred American brethren, and it wounds us when you disregard us as you have. You take as gospel truth the belligerent screams of an angry, xenophobic minority and assume that they are representative of the desires and the needs of the masses.

Maybe I’m wasting my breath; after all, it’s not like I’m saying anything that hasn’t been said before. But I’m going to say it anyway, because it needs to be said and repeated and so on, if for no other reason than because I need to reassure myself that we, as Americans, are not heirs to a legacy of hate, fear and distrust.

Le Monde, on September 12, 2001, published a headline stating that, at least for that moment in time, "We are all Americans." I’d like to add to that.

Aujour’hui et pour toujours, nous sommes tous Américains.

Today and forever, we are all Americans.ÂÂ

...

okay, let the hazing begin :-)ÂÂ