Twin celebrations of the Army’s 250th anniversary and the president’s birthday will include as many as 25 tanks rolling through Washington.
Twin celebrations of Donald Trump’s birthday and the Army’s 250th anniversary will include as many as 25 tanks rolling through Washington in a celebration that will cost $25 million to $45 million, U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
U.S. military service branches take pride in their history and anniversary celebrations, called birthdays, across the United States and on bases around the world.
The U.S. Army had long been planning to move troops and equipment to the National Mall in Washington on June 14 as part of its anniversary celebration. Plans now include a parade since that coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, the eventual cost could be as high as $45 million. One of them said the cost included several million dollars more than it would have without a parade.
I don’t know how common this sentiment is but I see a major military parade on US soil as an embarrassment. No uninvited foreign troops have set foot in the contiguous US since the Mexican American War ended in 1848. There hasn’t been a military battle in the contiguous US since Wounded Knee in 1890, inasmuch as Wounded Knee was a battle. Part of the privileges that Americans enjoy is that that level of conflict happens elsewhere. Large displays of military power at home deminish us.
The battle of Blair Mountain is the closest modern battle in the contiguous U.S.
I have few teachers I can remember lessons from my high school days, 20+ years ago. The US was fresh post 9/11, patriot act era.
AP History teacher, a Vietnam vet, took his time to explain why only “tinpot dictators” need military parades to show power and US armed forces Generals would never go for it.
While teaching checks-and-balances, he firmly believed enough good men and women would remain in positions of power to never let a dictator override the constitution.
Another time, he pointed out that the presidential election is never actually called until the candidate concedes (when asked about gore v w) and that fore conceded because that is what is done. When we pressed him on it, he said “You are teenage boys, and you think like teenage boys. Adults know what’s right, even if it means you lose.”
All that is to say, I consistently see reminders that this current administration has the same mental thought process as a group of teenage boys, spoiled teenagers who started at third and think they hit a home run.
To be fair, did Trump ever actually concede after 2020? Dude still says he won.
All military parades are ridiculously embarrassing.
I remember when they used to air the annual Scottish tattoo on tv.
I mean, it’s probably fun for anyone who participates or has a hard on for bagpipes, but for the rest of the world, it’s a ridiculous event where an audience shows up to watch men in uniform walk in beat and show their rifles in sync. It’s like square dancing, but only for men, and longer guns.
Good thing that I can switch channels, so I can watch syncronized swimming from the Olympics instead. I like their uniforms better.