So President Trump wants to have a big military parade through Washington, DC this summer. This isn’t a totally unprecedented thing. Doughboys marched through the streets of major cities before heading off to Europe to fight in World War I. There were huge military parades after GI’s returned from World War II. But public displays of military might here in the US have become extremely rare in the last fifty years.
The President claims he wants the parade to show “appreciation” for the military. Personally, I think he is jealous of similar types of displays in North Korea and other pissant countries where despots think they are impressing their own people while “scaring” the rest of the world. So Trump wants an even bigger dog and pony show to let everyone know that he has the biggest arsenal. I also picture him donning some brown, pseudo-military style jacket adorned with a bunch of fake medals and standing at attention holding a salute as division after division marches by. I’d bet that his lackey former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has a bunch of jackets and medals in a closet somewhere that the President can wear.
Plus, the timing of this just reeks of a political ploy. I’m sure every Republican will make a point of attending this spectacle–while Democrats will stay away in droves. That just gives the GOP another mid-term election talking point: “Democrats hate the military! They didn’t attend the military appreciation parade and clap for every soldier that walked by!”
The United States doesn’t need a four hour parade through the nation’s capital to display its military might. It is on display every day in every corner of the globe. If you take a short drive from the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang to the Demilitarized Zone, you will find US soldiers there making sure the troops that parade through North Korea’s capital under the watchful eye of Kim Song Un don’t come pouring across the border. Our Navy patrols every ocean and the coasts of every continent. Our Air Force has planes in the air 24-hours a day every day of the year flying over global hotspots. And we have satellites in space keeping an eye on the bad guys. We and the rest of the world already know our capabilities.
If President Trump really wants to show “appreciation” for the military, he would improve the Veterans Administration. Or he would free the strategists from “limited engagement” practices and open up the type of fighting that would bring an end to the War on Terror much faster–so those troops can be home with their families once and for all. But the Warrior Businessman isn’t going to do that. He is a showman and his followers are big into fake patriotism–so a grand parade to feed their egos is all we are going to get.
