Military parades? Leave the ostentatious flexing to the French

It was a typical contretemps in the Trump era: an odd and pointless idea, vaguely described and not well formed, trickled out into the media — and the media and Democrats reacted hysterically with cries of fascism.

President Trump wants a military parade in Washington, D.C. “The marching orders were: ‘I want a parade like the one in France,’” a military official said. We don’t know the president’s intentions or motivations for this. We also don’t know his specific plans. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, when asked in a Wednesday press conference, couldn’t give any answers.

Before this issue devolves into another political food fight, we want to weigh in with some warnings, from a conservative perspective, about how this idea could go very wrong.

Trump’s French experience was the Bastille Day parade in Paris last summer. It featured thousands of troops marching in columns, plus platoons of tanks rolling down Champs-Elysees. This would be improper in America today.

First, there’s the cost. Republicans have said they want to attack military waste. A parade like France’s would carry a hefty price tag, and it hardly serves an acute strategic purpose.