Trump’s ‘marching orders’ to the Pentagon: Plan a grand military parade

WaPo ^ | 6 Feb 2018 | Greg Jaffe and Philip Rucker

[mandaladon]

President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces.

Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but a Jan. 18 meeting between Trump and top generals in the Pentagon’s tank — a room reserved for top secret discussions — marked a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning.

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.”

American shows of military strength don’t come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.

A White House official familiar with the planning described the discussions as “brainstorming” and said nothing is settled. “Right now there’s really no meat on the bones,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Ugh -- terrible idea.

Dog and pony shows take time away from actual training, maintenance, or just giving the troops a bit of a break. I hope Mattis or Kelly manage to talk him out of this, or at least minimize the involvement of troops and focus just on driving some equipment.

[laplata]

A .22 or a 9 mm would be sufficient to give the eunuchs of the media the vapors. Maybe even an air rifle.

><

Oh, yeah, they’d really go nuts. Even a B B gun would do it.

I got my first .22 at about 12, as do many kids.

“And for his next birthday, Barron is receiving a new .22”.

[af_vet_rr]

And if he wants to honor the military then spend an hour or two wandering around Arlington.

Amen.

If he wants a big and flashy parade, do it in November to commemorate the anniversary/end of World War I, so that it's not about him.

[Bernard Marx]

No.

[af_vet_rr]

Not so sure it’s foreign powers he’s wanting to influence.

While I agree that this does nothing to influence foreign powers - they will be more influenced by our B-52s over Afghanistan or our carriers in the Pacific, who does he want to influence with American military might?

[af_vet_rr]

I suspect you’ve expressed a point of view that would be strongly supported by all Trump haters throughout the world. To me that signals that it’s exactly the right thing to do.

Would you have been okay with Obama ordering the Pentagon to throw together a big military parade in Washington?

[jmacusa]

Check out how many times Obama took that thing out when he was first in office.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>>Would you have been okay with Obama ordering the Pentagon to throw together a big military parade in Washington?<<

Never thought about it before but now that you’ve asked, I can’t think of any reason why I would have been opposed to it.

[DoodleDawg]

Check out how many times Obama took that thing out when he was first in office.

How many?

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>>So you believe spending millions of dollars from a defense budget that’s already stressed to nearly the breaking point is “exactly the right thing to do?”<<

I could present a reasonable rebuttal to your remarks in defense of my own but, since nothing you’ve stated strikes me as unreasonable, I will not do so.

[af_vet_rr]

> Never thought about it before but now that you’ve asked, I can’t think of any reason why I would have been opposed to it.

Congratulations, you maybe the only FReeper who would not have had a problem with Obama ordering up a military parade.

Just for reference though, these are the last times we had such parades in Washington over the last 150 years or so:

1865 - Civil War
1919 - World War I
1946 - World War II
1991 - Gulf War

I see nothing done under the Obama or Trump administrations to warrant such a parade.

And for reference, it cost $8 million (about $15 million in 2018) to march 8,000 troops through Washington. Given how different things are, and how much extra security would be, I have a feeling that it would be substantially more than $15 million.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I’m not sure a military parade is a good idea when it is known that half of our military planes cannot even fly.

[Bernard Marx]

LOL!

[married21]

I don’t like this. we don’t need it. Yes, it makes heads explode, and that has some entertainment value. But it is unnecessary, expensive, and reminds me of Dear Leader. NO thanks.

We have other things to do. (build wall. drain swamp. etc.)

[Bernard Marx]

No, they won’t stop calling him a dictator. But it took less than 24 hours for my prediction about the media response to his military parade to come true. The proposed parade just gives them real ammunition for the propaganda blitz already underway. I don’t see how this idea is a winner in any respect.

“On Wednesday morning, NBC’s Today show and ABC’s Good Morning America recited identical liberal talking points as both broadcasts warned viewers that the U.S. was on the verge of looking like world’s worst “authoritarian regimes” if the Pentagon followed through on President Trump’s desire to hold a military parade in the nation’s capital.”

[jmacusa]

445 times.

[DoodleDawg]

Source?

[jmacusa]

Ask.com. Whats up with the questions?. Weren’t you noticing how many times that little narcissistic prick took that thing out? Do you remember when he took it out to go a ‘’date’’ with the Wookie and buzzed NYC with it, scaring the be Jesus out of everybody?

[Reno89519]

I think it is a great idea. I also am quite peeved at Shepard Smith’s dismissive ridicule just seen on Fox. What a disrespectful idiot.

[af_vet_rr]

No, they won’t stop calling him a dictator. But it took less than 24 hours for my prediction about the media response to his military parade to come true. The proposed parade just gives them real ammunition for the propaganda blitz already underway. I don’t see how this idea is a winner in any respect.

And you haven't even addressed the fact that this would be taking away a holiday from the involved troops that they'd probably rather be spending with their families. And we haven't even gotten into the fact that they would have to spend weeks, no, probably a month or more at least, preparing for it, and then showing up in Washington in the summer and sleeping on a crappy cot in some hangar or gym for a few days. And then packing everything up and going back home.

And I notice that Senator Linda Graham is tweeting his support of it. Lindsay thinks the military can come up with the tens of millions of dollars this would cost, but he and his buddies in Congress thinks we can't mysteriously come up with millions more for the VA, or for systems/equipment that the troops want, because Congress would rather push for systems/equipment that benefits some contractor (lobbyists) in their state.

And by the way, those of us who are older and experienced the Cold War - this does look bad. If you want a one-time thing, you might be able to get away with it in November as a commemoration of World War I, since that's incredibly significant. A parade just because Trump said he wanted one is....I still cannot believe that the administration is openly talking about it.