President Trump’s recent proposal for a military parade is making waves throughout the media landscape.
Depending on which side of the tribal war each talking head lands on, his calls for a military parade are either patriotic and in line with a resurgent pride in America, or reminiscent of authoritarian regimes such as North Korea or the USSR.
The answer, in my opinion, is that there are portions of truth to what people are saying on either side of this strange ideological war we are all either currently observing or participating in ourselves.
To begin with, yes this would be abnormal, but not unheard of by any means. (See: The History of Military Parades in the U.S. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-military-parades-us-have-changed-180968102/)
The last large military parade was held in 1991 in Washington DC. It was signed off on by President H.W. Bush as a celebration for the end of the Persian Gulf War. This celebratory nature has generally been the reasoning for public military displays, so having a parade for the sake having one is a bit abnormal, but not shockingly so.
While it’s easy to point to the military parade example of North Korea in an effort to make Trump appear like an aspiring dictator, he got this idea from France, which I think we can all agree isn’t quite as damning of a comparison to make. That said, Trump does seem to admire the strongmen of the world, and he is no doubt doing this in part as a form of self-indulgence.
That doesn’t make his request an unprecedented threat to our democracy, just a brash businessman proposing an unnecessary sideshow done for dramatic effect, which is what Trump’s entire talent as a showman has always been. This isn’t an escalation of a troubling behavior from Trump, this is just who he has always been, and America knew that when they elected him.
If the news hosts from the left and the right are to be believed, this is an extremely divisive issue, but I simply don’t think that’s the case for the general public. Judging from the reactions I have seen, this seems like an issue most people agree on.
The parade itself would be fun to watch, and I’m sure there would be a surge in pride. The veterans of Vietnam, Korea, and all our other conflicts should get their chance to be publicly thanked, and if the parade is going to happen, that would be a move that would help make up for times when we weren’t as appreciative of our veterans as we are now…but then the more logistically focused portion of this has to be looked at.
We know how stretched thin the military is already, and those in the military know how much time and effort goes into organizing a large ceremonial style event. This would be a scheduled pause that would drastically affect the readiness of units that are already struggling to meet training requirements. With a continually ballooning budget, what would the costs of such an event be? I shudder to consider the sheer volume of uniform inspections, marching drills and cleaning that would be required of the units selected.
Given the pros and cons of doing a parade, I would prefer for them to not waste the time and money required to do something of this magnitude with an already overworked military force. However, I don’t think this is the world ending calamity the media may portray it to be. Yes, a lot of this is likely motivated by Trump’s need to put on a show and bask in applause, but taking a day to honor the people who sacrifice to carry out our nation’s foreign policy objectives can always be appreciated, no matter how misguided we may believe it may be.