Is a military parade wise?

             Early this week the chairman of the joint chief of staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, has confirmed that planning for a military parade, as suggested by Donald Trump, is now underway. This sort of parade will not be just a celebration of the soldiers but the military itself. This means the parade will include tanks, jets, helicopters, and possibly even missiles. President Trump has shown an interest in this sort of parade since witnessing the parade in France on Bastille Day last year. While the planning has begun it is still in its infancy. The problem with holding this kind of parade is that while it may send the citizens of America one message, the rest of the world may end up receiving a different one.

            The difference between The United States holding a military parade and France holding one is that The Bastille day parade is one that is built on French tradition.  America has never had any kind of tradition like Bastille Day. The last military parade was in 1990 to celebrate the end of the gulf war and even then it was mainly soldier and a few jets and helicopters flying overhead. Had America held parades like this for years to celebrate the end of the revolutionary war or some other important day in American history it might make sense but that is not the case. Rather than this being compared to the French parade, it is more similar to the parades held in North Korea or other dictatorships. Because of this comparison, other nations of the world might see this parade not as a simple celebration of our military but as a threat or a warning. Other nations could see this display of our military as a reminder to the world of our military’s strength. While our allies might not care so much about it, chalking it up to Trump’s arrogance, but other nations who may view America as a threat, such as North Korea or many Middle Eastern countries, may see it as a personal message to them which could lead to these countries being less likely to want to do business with us. One such country that may view it as a threat is Iran. With President Trump’s talk of wanting a new nuclear deal it would not be surprising if this parade pushed them further towards wanting to sever ties with The United States.

            Not only would this harm diplomatic relations it will also be a massive waste of time, money, and manpower. It would be very expensive to build whatever was needed to be built or move whatever needed to be moved, not to mention the paychecks of all the people working on the parade. The possible real purpose of this parade is to encourage patriotism and to encourage support of the military. This would be a massive waste of time as a majority of Americans already support the military. This parade will also require many roads to be closed down for it, leading to massive traffic problems and many people could end up late for work.

            Holding a military parade such as the one President Trump is suggesting is simply a foolish and possibly even dangerous waste of time and resources.