Op-Ed by Skyler Pierce-Scher
After attending the French Bastille Day spectacle, Trump was mesmerized by the hundreds of French military troops marching down the streets of France. He now wants a massive military parade to take place in Washington D.C. He claims his reason for wanting a parade is to pay tribute to our troops. However, many believe this parade will be a waste of resources, and might resemble military parades of an authoritarian regime.
This parade would stop the Pentagon and our government from putting their energy into immediate issues facing the United States today. Instead, our nation’s leaders are occupied planning a parade that has no purpose other than to show that the United States has a large, strong military. In addition to the parade being a waste of resources, military parades are largely associated with authoritarian military regimes like the Soviet Union and North Korea. In the past they have been used as a way to threaten and strike fear in other countries by trying to show the strength of a nation’s military and to establish military dominance. Russia holds a military parade every year on May 9th to celebrate the end of WWII–or as they call it The Great Patriotic War–however, they also use it as an opportunity to show off their tanks. India has a military parade every year as well to mark the adoption of the country’s constitution, the parade is also usually designed to intimidate Pakistan. Iran holds a military parade each year as well to commemorate the Iran-Iraq War and it is often used to show their hatred for the west (particularly the U.S.). North Korea is also notorious for their military parades that are commonly used to show off their missiles. Military parades are massive propaganda efforts and orchestrating a parade like those of an authoritarian regime could send the wrong message to countries the U.S. is conflicting with.
Many politicians, including republicans, have expressed their opinions on the matter as well. It has been called “a fantastic waste of money to amuse the president” (Sen. Dick Durbin, (D) Illinois). Some think it’s even “cheesy” and “shows weakness”(Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R) South Carolina). These opinions have held to be true. In 1991 under the presidency of George HW Bush the U.S. held a 12 million dollar Grand Military Parade celebrating the victory over Iraq. Of the 12 million dollars, the government only paid for 3 million–a quarter–of it. Now, twenty-seven years later, Trump’s Grand Military Parade is expected to cost more than Bush’s and The Washington Post has reported that military officials are unsure of where the money will come from. The funds for the parade could “drain resources that could otherwise have been allocated to the military’s other needs” (Business Insider). Supporters of the parade claim that the parade is necessary to honor U.S. troops, however many veterans have claimed that they don’t want or need a parade and that making troops march for hours in the sun, and then taking funds that could go to supporting them to do so, is no way of honoring them.
Despite all the reasons a Grand Military Parade would be a bad idea, the Pentagon has reported that they are currently in the process of planning one.