[monocle]

The Iraqis are becoming more French every day. These fanatics are the equivalent of the French Foreign Legion which are all nonFrench.

[archy]

The Iraqis are becoming more French every day. These fanatics are the equivalent of the French Foreign Legion which are all nonFrench.

Formerly a technical requirement, but one that was widely ignored. Even the Legion's traditional marching song Le boudin identifies the Legion's troopers as les Alsaciens, les Suisse et les Lorrains. And it's a good bet that the accents of a good many of the *Swiss* Legion enlistees owed more to the streets of Maresilles or Paris than to those of Thun, Basel or Bern.

Nowadays [since the mid-1970s] about a third of those in the Legion Etranger are of French nationality.

-archy-/-