Posted on 06/15/2025 11:35:32 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
I arrived for the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington D.C. on a drizzly Saturday afternoon with considerable consternation and concern.
I knew that President Donald Trump had been agitating for such a spectacle since 2017, but that his first secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, had refused, because he viewed this as something that occurred in dictatorships like Russia and North Korea. In private, Mattis reportedly said he would rather “swallow acid” than have troops parading through the capital.
Now Trump has a far more accommodating, and far less qualified, secretary of defense in Pete Hegseth, thereby opening the door to the potential politicization of the U.S. armed forces. That danger has been on display in the past week, with Trump deploying the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles over the protests of local leaders and delivering a campaign-style speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, that produced disturbing video clips of 82nd Airborne troops cheering while he bashed Democrats and the media.
My worry was that Trump would turn the Army parade into just another political pageant. Those concerns only grew when I saw how many of the spectators were wearing MAGA hats or shirts.
But my apprehension began to melt away as soon as the music started to play and the soldiers began to march. Dear reader, I hope you do not think I am going soft on Trump if I tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire parade.
As a military history nerd, I loved to see the soldiers marching by in period uniforms from the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. I thrilled to the flybys from historic aircraft...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Anyone who wasn't awed by that isn't an American. The units in period uniforms blew me out of the water.
Who cares what others say about us in their attempts to mock us.
We attended online. Didn't need to go there in person.
You forgot the rest of the absurd comment:”...thereby opening the door to the potential politicization of the U.S. armed forces.” I’m pretty sure it’s the left that ALWAYS politicizes the military.
Scared little liberals at the Wash compost.
If you win over that idiot, you’re really accomplished something.
Well golly, those durn rooskies are poking fun at our parade. Did people really expect anything else? Even if we had unloaded a few B52s into a moutain as Emporer Trump waved to all the smiling faces. Puleeze.
Boot is of the same ilk as Vindman—despicable.
+1
Thus endeth the author's credibility ...
The only qualification for SecDef is they be a civilian.
But only Swamp creatures are acceptable to Swamp creatures.
If Mattis was more qualified, than why is Hegseth doing a better job?
This Max Poot fellow sounds like someone who wishes he were someone more important than he is.
Mods, this idiot is an obvious troll, just read his past posts. Please make the appropriate changes.
Thank you.
Hey! I'm qualified to be SecDef! Hoooray!!!
I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but once it started I really really wished I were there.
“It was grand, and good marketing.”
Dittos
“ Now Trump has a far more accommodating, and far less qualified, secretary of defense in Pete Hegseth”
Washington Post readers, leftists, take premises and run
I, on the other hand,, was well- educated by Dominican nuns.
I listened to the Long Island school boys on the back of the bus debate every subject on the way to and from. My parents didn’t take false premises they were a pain in the ass. Like me
Max Boot needs to explain this if he wants to publish his opinion in a major paper
The major paper is not a major paper that allows false premises
If Mattis liked Trump he would be less qualified to max boot
“As a military history nerd, I…”
As a military history nerd you should know that the United States secretary of defense is not to criticize the Commander in Chief he is operating under. Which mattis did.
It is against the UCMJ -military law- for any active duty person to do so publicly
One can argue, as one marine I spoke with did, that Mattis was no longer active duty when he did so, but it just makes the Marine whom Mattis turned against the CIC- Trump- look like a litigious little snot that he still is. Unfortunately. And mattis always advertised himself as general
When I look up Mattis in wiki there nis his photo. In army greens with his four stars
Mattis is scum
Normally I’d stop reading as soon as the snot started dripping, but I couldn’t help myself so much that I even clicked on WP to continue reading. What an idiot! It was wonderful and he was SOOO frustrated that even HE had to admit it was wonderful.
I never expected to see the period uniforms and I was thrilled. My family’s been military since colonial days and I study uniforms, etc to attempt to understand the lives of those ancestors.
But as the narrator began explaining the development of more comfortable uniforms, I suddenly found myself worrying about how long the marchers had marched in the older hot and scratchy uniforms and hard, unyielding boots. I really hope there aren’t a lot of blisters being tended to today. How much I would love to see a documentary done by the re-enactors to tell what it was like to wear those historical cloths and think of themselves as part of a line even longer than the Long Grey Line.
And that silly author was enjoying it as much as I was but having to flagellate himself to his liberal buddies to excuse and apologize for that wonderful experience. How nice that my life is simpler than his. I can just luxuriate in what a great time I had watching our young warriors march by and enjoying fireworks that had to remind every silly liberal in that city what a good time the rest of us were having.
Max Boot couldn't hold Pete Hegseth's jock strap.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.