No need for U.S. to mimic France’s military parade

President Donald Trump’s desire for a grand military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue appears to be moving forward, with the military preparing five options for the Commander in Chief.

Trump has said he wants the parade to rival France’s Bastille Day parade, and the ostentatious display will likely include soldiers marching and tanks rolling.

The White House budget director has come up with a preliminary estimate of between $10 million and $30 million, depending on the option the president chooses.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier this month that Trump wants the Pentagon to “explore a celebration” that will allow Americans to show appreciation for the military.

The type of military parade Trump wants is common in authoritarian countries like North Korea and China, but not in the United States. Nor should it be.

That’s not to say that the U.S. hasn’t had big military parades in the past. The Union Army marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865 to mark its victory and the end of the Civil War. There were parades after the end of World War I, parades in New York in 1942 to show solidarity with troops being shipped overseas toward the beginning of World War II and another big parade in New York in 1946 to mark the end of that war. There was another victory parade held in Washington in 1991 after the end of the first Gulf War.

However, Trump’s parade isn’t being done to celebrate some hard-fought victory.

To its credit, the Pentagon appears to be pushing to hold the parade on Veteran’s Day in November, which marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. But that can’t mask the fact Trump became enamored with the idea after observing the French Bastille Day parade.

“I want a parade like the one in France,” he reportedly told his top generals. Many in Congress view this parade as a bad idea. “Our troops in danger overseas don’t need a show of bravado, they need steady leadership,” says Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a decorated Iraq War veteran who lost both her legs when her helicopter was shot down. Even members of his own party are dubious of the idea.

“I think confidence is silent and insecurity is loud,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters recently. “America is the most powerful country in all of human history. Everybody knows it, and we don’t need to show it off. We’re not North Korea; we’re not Russia; and we’re not China, and I don’t want to be.”

There has to be a better way we can show our appreciation for our troops and veterans, and a better way to spend $10 million to $30 million. If only the Commander in Chief of the most potent military on the planet could see that, and that it is unbecoming to try to outdo an ally’s long-standing military tradition just because he can.