I prefer the idea of carrying giant balloons just like that one they had in London.
In any case, nobody on this thread mentioned another obvious objection to the idea – Donnie already had his parade.
And in fact the plan is to have Vlad standing beside Donny, admiring the size of Donny’s missile:
Granted, it hasn’t yet been confirmed that Putin’s visit to DC would coincide with the parade.
But does anyone doubt that this is what Trump is dreaming of?
If you want to do something for military people, send them a gift card and give them a day off. I’m sure none of them want to travel across country so they can spend a day marching. They’d rather be with their families.
This parade is all about stroking Trump’s ego.
Why would Trump want to embarrass himself? If there’s one thing pseudo-Communist dictatorships do better than the US, it’s military parades. Especially if the US is only spending $12 million - that’s about half the cost of the last Olympics opening ceremony.
Well, for the past 20 years Republicans have supported the troops by sending them to foreign countries to be shot at, so walking through D.C. is a step in the right direction.
Could they play the Hell March at the parade? 
The National Capital Military Region does have a modest collection of Ceremonial units but that’s hardly enough for a full-on Big Parade (the Old Guard is only one batallion). As you mentioned the closest active-component large frontline units are in Southern VA/NC and I suppose that for the purposes of prepping for the activity closer to scene they could find space at Fort A.P. Hill and Quantico. Still means that they’ll be up at Oh-Dark-Gimmeabreak to get to the staging point in DC and in the process create a mess in a town where the traffic is a pain even on a holiday.
Not a fan of comparing wrongs. That just resets where normal is. If it would have been a problem pre-Trump, we should continue to treat it like a problem.
This is utterly disrespectful to our veterans and it should be treated that way, regardless of what else Trump is doing. Let’s get some vets talk about how much trouble this whole thing is. Let’s show how little the military actually supports this idea. Push that idea on social media. It’s actually something conservatives might care about, so don’t wait.
I wouldn’t have seen the parade we ended up with as a problem pre-Trump. I would have generally been pretty supportive. Something highly militaristic, like the French Bastille Day Parade that served as the inspiration, highlighting equipment and national power made me roll my eyes and remember the ass pain of standing and marching in ceremonies and parades.
We’re not getting that parade. What we’re getting is a parade marking the 100th Anniversary of the end of WWI. It’s going to include veterans and veteran’s groups along with current troops in historical uniforms. They even managed to move it to a cooler month that a 4th of July parade. Less suck to embrace. I find the parade were getting both respectful and appropriate once we remove the lens of Trump and what Trump wanted. Just ignoring that anniversary except for Veteran’s Day sales at the local mattress store seems a lot more disrespectful.
Ceremonies, to include parades, suck. There’s a pretty big but attached, though. My second company command was one unit armory in a small town. We participated in three parades a year. Attendance was voluntary and unpaid; I couldn’t afford to approve paid training time to support the events. We always had volunteers. One Memorial Day parade involved one of my Soldiers that was home from Iraq on leave. he had two weeks away from uniforms and combat to spend with his family. He volunteered to spend part of that time helping remember those who’d died in service before him.
Support wasn’t there in polling of the military when this idea started. At that point we were looking at what was looking like a big show of combat vehicles and military power. That’s not what DOD seems to be crafting. I think you might be surprised at how much that can change the perception among veterans.
Thanks for that link; one of the videos lurking in the right-hand menu turned out to be this bizarre yet oddly compelling thing; I’m still working on getting my jaw undropped.
Russian Village People?
Three terminal alcoholics and a policeman.
Now, see, it doesn’t seem very expensive to us middle-class folks, because we can reasonably expect to earn a few million bucks or so in a lifetime. But it seems hugely expensive to Trump, because his expected lifetime earnings are nearly zero.
German, actually.
They already have one. Actually, scads of them. The Veterans Day Parade in NYC is a big event, and there are dozens, if not hundreds* smaller Veterans Day and Memorial Day parades all around the country.
*Actually, considering that there are dozens in the NYC / Long Island area alone, I’m sure that there are hundreds nationwide.
And I was invited to march ( actually ride on a float ) at the Veterans Day parade a couple of times. Because I hang out with my local neighborhood disabled veterans, talk with them, help them out in small ways like picking up small items from the store for them - because it’s hard to navigate small bodegas in a wheelchair.
But I couldn’t go because I’m a liberal and if I look at a uniformed officer they will burst into flames from the dissonance of my heresy - …and I was on vacation that week. Mostly I couldn’t go because of the vacation thing
But I actually support veterans - with deeds as well as words — even though I don’t always support the wars that injured and killed them. Because actually working with them is a lot more supportive that flouncing out of football games or supporting a military parade honoring a draft-dodging pussy.
I don’t have it in me to condemn anyone for dodging that wretched war. There is, of course, much more to say, but I’d rather not. Just can’t do it.
I think the general condemnation is not so much for those who dodged, as for those who dodged and then wrapped themselves in the flag and professed to be the greatest pro-military, pro-veterans patriot ever.
Point well taken.
Although the official reasoning is that the parade was going over budget, I can easily imagine the timing had an impact as well, as Adm. McRaven just put Trump on blast for the security clearance shenanigans. Not a good time to have soldiers around a Commander in Chief who hasn’t served and who uses political intimidation tactics against people who have “wronged” him.
Near the beginning of Trump’s term he got a bunch of Special Forces soldiers killed by having them rush a mission. They would not forget something like that and if Trump wants to politicize the military, it’s entirely possible they would be happy to take him up on it. The tree of liberty is watered with blood after all and the right of a well-regulated militia to overthrow a tyrannical government is written down somewhere…