Two retired high-ranking officers thrashed President Trump's order to the Pentagon to plan a military parade in Washington sometime this year, saying on Wednesday morning that it would be a poor use of resources and would send the wrong message.
The officers were reacting to reports, confirmed by the White House and the Pentagon Tuesday night, that Trump told the Defense Department to begin plans for a parade to showcase the military, based on a parade he witnessed in France last year. The Pentagon said it has received the request and is working out the details, to include where it would be held, when and what sorts of equipment it would feature.
"I don't like it ... not at all," retired Rear Adm. John Kirby, former spokesman for the Pentagon and State Department, said on CNN. "This is not about showcasing our military. This is about the president showing off. This is all about his ego. That's just an inappropriate use of military time, talent, and resources."
He said the cost, likely in the millions of dollars to transport equipment and troops to Washington, would be better spent on operations, training and "taking care of our people." He also brought up the optics, which critics were quick to point out evoked marches in Moscow and Pyongyang.
"This is beneath us as a nation," Kirby said. "We are the most powerful military on Earth. We're very proud of that and rightly so. We don't need to be parading our military hardware down Pennsylvania Avenue to show that to anybody."
Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who commanded U.S. Army Europe, and was still in Iraq in 1991 when a parade was held to herald the end of the Persian Gulf War. He said he's heard nothing but negative reviews from the active-duty and veteran community on the idea.
"I did an informal Twitter survey last night, very unscientific. But I will tell you, it was about 100 to 0 in terms of people, soldiers, former military saying they don't want any part of these kind of parades. The reason for it is ... there are resource issues, implications for logistics. It would be extremely expensive. It would tear up the streets," he said.
"You could get past all of those arguments and just say one thing: It's not who we are as a military. The United States has a different military culture. We do not portray ourselves walking down the streets. Instead, we do the parades on main street in the middle of Idaho during the Fourth of July with flags taped to kids' handlebars. That's the kind of parades we have. We don't have to portray military might because people know how strong we are, the world knows what we are. It's just not part of our culture."
Kirby said he expects Pentagon planners are now trying to figure out ways to walk the plans back.
"I think the military leaders in the Pentagon are probably trying to think how they can scope this in such a way that maybe it isn't such a waste of resources, doesn't get to that point the Gen. Hertling brought up about being a little too grandiose for our boots."
