Trump’s Military Parade Would Make America in His Egotistical Image

Last updated on: February 20, 2018 at 3:05 pm by Kermit Zarley

Trump’s Military Parade Would Make America in His Egotistical Image 2018-02-20T15:05:37-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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President Trump says he wants to have a big military parade. The U.S. hasn’t really done that since right after WWII. I think that occasion certainly called for it. But to me, military parades are mostly about national ego which is largely to the detriment of other nations. It says, “Look at our military strength. Don’t mess with us.” (This photo is of the first U.S. Army parade held after WWII, held in Tokyo, Japan.

I’d rather the U.S. would continue as is, with no military parades except the small ones that sometimes occur on select military bases, which are just in-house. I like the foreign policy of one of our greatest presidents. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” (My full name is Kermit Millard Zarley Jr. My grandparents named my dad “Kermit” after Teddy Roosevelt’s son.)

The first known use of this phrase by Theodore Roosevelt was when he was Governor of New York. He then wrote a letter to Henry L. Sprague, dated January 26, 1900, saying, “I have always been fond of the West African proverb: ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.'” [Drawn from the Wikipedia article “Big Stick ideology.”)

I think Donald Trump may be a hypocrite regarding our U.S. military. He says he loves military generals. But see my post, “Was Donald Trump a Draft Dodger?”

In the days when Donald Trump and I were young, our nation had a military draft in which all eligible young men were subject to being drafted into the military for two years of active duty. But all such young men also had an option to join the reserves and thus avoid the draft. However, reservists had a six year military obligation, in which they were subject to being called to active duty at any time during the 5.5 years after they served their six month active-duty obligation. Trump had a questionable medical exemption from the draft. It supposedly was a bone spur on his foot. Asked years later by a newspaper reporter what foot it was, Trump said he didn’t remember.

(I was in both the U.S. Army and Air Force reserves for a total of 7.5 years, doing active-duty Army six years. This time period was from 1963 to 1970. Just about that entire time, my military unit could have been called up and sent to the Viet Nam War. It also impeded my professional golf career on the PGA Tour, which I started in 1964. I had to miss one tournament per month in order to attend weekend reserve meetings of the military unit I was in that was near where I lived.)

U.S. Military Parades

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