Donald Trump’s fixation and unhealthy obsession with all things military has taken a hard turn into the grotesque.
Like Kim Jung-un and the Soviets of old, he wants to parade missiles, tanks, and formations of soldiers down Constitution Avenue, never mind the irony there.
Call him Rocket Man.
Or Mr. Bone Spurs, the excuse he used to avoid the draft.
This boondoggle will cost us $22 million, about the same price as seven trips to Mar-a-Lago.
Naturally, his base loves the idea.
According to the base, it’s anti-American to oppose this charade, and if you don’t like it, keep your damn mouth shut.
Trump’s parade will serve as a showcase for a standing army, something the founders opposed.
Here’s James Madison:
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
But never mind, we don’t think about those guys much anymore, or the Constitution for that matter.
I’m not sure what Rocket Man Trump has in mind, but we can pretty much conclude it’s all about him.
The show of military might wasn’t merely an idea floated for consideration—it was a directive.
The Washington Post:
Surrounded by the military’s highest ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford, Trump’s seemingly abstract desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive, the officials said.
“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”
The last time this happened was during the reign of George H. W. Bush. He decided to celebrate his “victory” in the Persian Gulf War.
Consider El Presidente Trump’s Red Square parade a tribute to over 200 military conflicts started by the US since WWII. It’s estimated those conflicts and undeclared wars—that troublesome Constitution again—have resulted in around 30 million dead people, 90% innocent civilians.
That’s more people than Hitler killed.