February 14, 2018
On Parades and Politics
Our nation has a long history of honoring its servicemembers with public pageantry
Last year President Donald Trump traveled to Paris to attend the Bastille Day parade as a guest of President Macron. He was very impressed with what he saw. In January, reportedly during a visit to the Pentagon to consult with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he expressed an interest in holding a similar event in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the nation’s military. Soon word of the parade leaked out of the Pentagon’s “Tank,” the secure meeting room of Mattis and his generals. The news media, intelligentsia, and the Twitterverse all went wild. The Washington Post headline read, “Trump’s Military Parade Panned by DC Officials.” The Atlantic announced that “Military Parades Are a Waste of Time and Money” and the New York Times made the awkward assertion that “The Military Is Not a Political Prop.” Concerns abound with regard to military displays in public.
The reactions were not all that dissimilar to those we heard around this time last year when President Trump’s choices for cabinet and senior-level positions contained more than a few retired military officers. Vox asked, “Is Trump Hiring Too Many Generals?” and the Huffington Post suggested, “Trump Is Opening the Door to Military Rule.” The Nation, never hesitant to weigh in under such stressful circumstances, declared, “Trump’s Cabinet Is a Coup Waiting to Happen.” One lawmaker claimed, “We have a Napoleon in the making.” Militarism, it seems, has suddenly arrived in the United States. Certainly, one might think, the nation has never had so many retired military officers serving in high governmental positions before. Hardly ever, apparently, has the nation paraded its military through the streets of its major cities, and the military (or even retired military officers) has no role to play in the public square, according to many commentators.
Read the full op-ed in National Review.
More from CNAS
-
Working National Security on John McCain’s Presidential Campaign
Podcast
Richard Fontaine spent years advising leading figures in American foreign policy, but working for the late Sen. John McCain was unlike anything he had experienced before. Now ...
By Richard Fontaine & Ilan Goldenberg
-
Interservice rivalries: A force for good
Commentary
It’s no secret that the military services fight hard to protect their shares of the defense budget. Just last week, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday made his case...
By Susanna V. Blume & Molly Parrish
-
Stories from the Backchannel: Season Two Trailer
Podcast
Now more than ever, Americans are interested in the people working behind the scenes on consequential national security decisions. In Season Two of Stories from the Backchanne...
By Ilan Goldenberg, Richard Fontaine, Susanna V. Blume, Kayla M. Williams, Price B. Floyd, Kurt Campbell & Kara Frederick
-
Sending Troops Back to the Middle East Won’t Stop Iran
Commentary
The Trump administration’s decision to kill Qassam Soleimani is the latest in an escalatory “maximum pressure” Iran strategy that is shifting American foreign policy attention...
By Chris Dougherty & Kaleigh Thomas
