![Military parades more indicative of authoritarian regimes. [ image source: Wikimedia Commons ]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/2/7/660x290/b_502x220x82/military-parades-more-indicative-of-authoritarian-regimes-photo-courtesy-of-wikimedia-commons_1822487.jpg "Military parades more indicative of authoritarian regimes. [ image source: Wikimedia Commons ]")
President trump is, by all accounts, planning a Military Parade of pomp and pageantry similar to one he recently observed in France while the French celebrated Bastille Day, according to the New York Times and Washington Post. He apparently believes that with threats like N.Korea and Iran on his horizon, a celebration of the might and majesty of our military will surely intimidate our adversaries.
Why does the U.S. need to lower itself to a 'gross' display of power
Were the United States not the world’s only remaining superpower, so defined by political scientists following the fall of the former Soviet Union, one might imagine the need for a military parade.
On the other hand, we may need to put a large number of our nuclear ICBMs on display in the streets of Washington, D.C. in order to deter an imminent invasion from Canada and Mexico upset at The US's ‘saber rattling’ regarding a withdraw from NAFTA. Moreover, with approximately half the country starting to get fidgety about the goings on inside the current president’s administration, and the president perpetually offending Mexicans, Muslims, the handicapped, women, people of color etc., a show of military might marching down Pennsylvania Ave. might remind us who's boss and relegate a popular uprising to Twitter and keep it off the streets. Yeah, that just might work!
Is a parade not just an attempt by the president to rally his base?
No, I believe the reality is that we are just experiencing the president’s cyclical need for adoration from his base. Channeling another campaign-like rally in Alabama or Indiana, he will "honor our military" by marching a mock-up of our military arsenal down the streets of Washington.
Nevermind that since 911, it has been internationally accepted that the world’s biggest threats will be from fractious, nebulous, and mobile terrorist type enemies seeking to create and move dirty bombs and the like, not from nation states launching their nuclear arsenals. Not, that is, until Donald Trump decided to create fear where none existed by using reckless international rhetoric.
What would a parade prove and why?
The best description of the grand military spectacle, which he may have in mind, was made by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) who said to reporters on Wednesday that such a display would be "cheesy and beneath the power and might of the United States of America." Representative Adam Smith of Washington State and the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee related that most celebrations of this kind were the culmination of successful events such as WWII or the Gulf War. He went on to say to the NY Times “A military parade like this - unduly focused on a single person - is what authoritarian regimes do, not democracies.” I couldn’t agree more.
