I’m not gung ho on the idea of the military parade, but not because I’m against a good parade. If it was for celebrating the military, I’d be all for it. Lord knows the military has made enormous sacrifices over the last decade and a half. Expressing some gratitude for it is fine by me.
My problem is that this just seems like a vanity project for the president, not gratitude for the troops. I also don’t think it’s the biggest outrage in the world either. Moreover, I think Democrats are once again boxing themselves into a corner by freaking out over something most Americans will think is kind of cool and harmless.
Still, if you want to effectively throw shade at the idea or at countries that are great at dressing up but not so great at fighting, you can do no better than General Jack Keane. Here he is on Fox:
“These European militaries and some of these other guys, they dress up in fancy outfits with fancy uniforms,” Keane said. “They have unbelievably fancy uniforms. Gold braid, sabers all over the place. Shiny helmets. We’re a pragmatic military. We reflect the American people.”
He continued:
We’re informal. Our uniforms are dull by comparison. And what we do is we train and we fight. We bear the burdens around the world. These other guys, they do a lot more parading than they do fighting. But if the president wants a parade from the United States military, he’ll get his parade.
And here he is again on Fox Business.