Kerby Anderson

Should the United States have a military parade on Veteran’s Day? The reaction to the suggestion by the president has brought lots of comments. When I asked the question on my radio program, the phones lit up.

Rachel Alexander wrote an article about the response from liberals concerning the idea, so I had her on the program. She explained that many liberal groups and news organizations argued that a military parade is what despots and authoritarian governments do. She reminded us that the president got the idea by watching the French military parade on Bastille Day. And she provided a short list of other non-authoritarian countries (like Finland, Portugal, and Australia) that also hold parades for their military.

When the president first floated the idea, news outlets were obsessed with two issues. First, they warned that tanks driven down the streets in Washington, D.C. would damage the streets. But the administration announced the parade would not include tanks. However, I might mention the last US military parade (after the first Gulf War of Desert Storm) did have tanks.

The second criticism was over cost. The parade could cost $3 million or much higher depending on how elaborate the parade might be. Callers responded that no one seemed to care about the costs of many of the other marches, protests, and parades held in Washington, D.C. that require everything from law enforcement to clean up. I suggested that in the current budget of $1.3 trillion, a few million dollars is hardly even a “rounding error.”

The general consensus was that if the parade was used to honor veterans, this would be a positive experience, especially for Vietnam Veterans. But not everyone agrees. A number of Democrats in Congress have sponsored the PARADE Act to prevent tax dollars from being used for a military parade. I suspect we will be debating this issue all the way to Veteran’s Day.