Why Trump's birthday military parade lacked the oomph he expected...

[PeaceWave]

Last edited Sun Jun 15, 2025, 01:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Out of curiosity more than anything else, I tuned in to Trump's birthday military parade. Seeing Pete Hegseth looking more constipated than usual and Marco Rubio very clearly yawn within the first few minutes should have been an indicator of things to come. A rather lackluster affair, it quickly occurred to me. Sure, there were soldiers in their dress uniforms. Sure, there was a historical element. Sure, there were tanks and armored vehicles and helicopters on display. But, why I wondered, was a display of America's obviously powerful military might so...boring - Apparently, even to Trump?

Then, it occurred to me. Whoever staged the event only went halfway authoritarian. There weren't any mobile ICBMS. There wasn't any goosestepping. There wasn't any Star Wars Imperial March being pumped over the loudspeakers. In short, there wasn't any of the level of anxiety and fear infused in our soldiers - and they are OUR soldiers - that history has shown in the faces of the soldiers of the Third Reich, Stalin's Soviet Union or the North Korean regime. And, quite frankly, there wasn't much of a display of respect either. Soldiers were marching out of step and not turning their gaze as they passed Trump.

Machiavelli wrote that it is better to be feared than respected. Today, Trump laid bare for the world to see that he is neither to be feared nor respected. He is just another windbag in a cheap suit who never served his country, demanding that he be honored, oblivious to the fact that true honor belongs to those who earn it, someone remembered - sometimes in life, sometimes in death - a person whose accomplishments are recalled and whose memory is passed down for ages. In contrast, today was a day dedicated to a small man that most, perhaps even the smallest man of all, would rather soon forget.

[RussBLib]

1. nicely done

if you wrote that, well put.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[NNadir]

2. A very nice post. KnR.

[Srkdqltr]

3. There was no march music. No snap in the marching. It was nice to see all the military stuff.

But it lacked pop, or sizzle. It was dull and boring. I liked the music but it was not military parade.

[ITAL]

20. I didn't watch

But the Argonne is a forest where we lost many men in WWI. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was incredibly bloody. So, on the off chance he was talking about the First World War, he would have actually been correct.

It's more likely he was talking about the Battle of the Bulge in WWII, and just screwed up.

[WarGamer]

23. you are correct. The speech was written for him obviously.

“They are the best. They are the finest from Bunker Hill to San Juan Hill, from Gettysburg to Guadalcanal, from Yorktown to Shiloh, and from the trenches of the Argonne to the mountains of Afghanistan, the Army has forged a legacy of unmatched courage, untold sacrifice.”

[Wednesdays]

5. What is sad about that first video

Is that 2/3 of those guys will be dead within seven years.

[LudwigPastorius]

8. Meh...

They fucked around with the antifascist world, and found out.

[PufPuf23]

6. Hardly anyone attended the parade.

Would have been more people for 250th birthday of the US Army but POS Trump made the celebration about himself.

[SeattleVet]

7. Looking at the soldiers marching you can see how much they HATE getting stuck on 'parade duty'.

WhenI was in the Air Force these were despised. You get to waste a ton of time prepping a uniform that was never otherwise worn; waste a ton of time practicing; waste a ton of time doing stuff other than your actual job.

Then you hate a ton of time standing around waiting for the parade to start, march, fall out, and head back to your base to put everything away and try to catch up on work that didn't get downe because you were on parade duty.

Waste of time and money, all around.

[usonian]

9. I don't want to knock a service buddy, but they were bouncing.

If I did that in boot camp, I'd still be there, 50 years later. (54, actually)

Heart not in it and the dumb shits in the stands couldn't tell a march from a waltz step.

[Wounded Bear]

13. Yeah, most everybody who served remembers that...

parades suck.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Malicious Compliance

[GopherGal]

21. Yes, I detect a little Malicious Compliance as well

I'm not sure where the "Fortunate Son" music came from, but that says it all.

Whoever planned this all most likely justified the lack of martial band music and the slipshod marching as somehow taking the threatening authoritarian edge off the proceedings. And that worked. It also detracted from the highly regimented tribute to himself that Bonespurs Krasnov had imagined.

It is a bit of a shame that the Army was cheated out of a celebration of its 250th Anniversary. I'm sure the soldiers directly involved might have preferred a means of celebration other than "Parade Duty" and if good ole American ingenuity is still what I hope it is, I imagine they managed their own celebrations.

[littlemissmartypants]

22. Thanks for your reply, GopherGal. I couldn't agree more.

It's an absolute shame that the Army was cheated out of a celebration of its 250th Anniversary!

I hope that they made up for it later. They we definitely hijacked.

Now, We The People, have an entire year to plan how to keep this low life, President Psychopath, from hijacking our entire republic.



❤️

[NBachers]

11. Well written, Peacewave. I couldn't help but be impressed by the Soviet video.

While at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in April, they displayed an actual Politbureau car. I had to photograph it.

[BidenRocks]

12. I think that every Marine was critiquing the marching.

We can't help it.
In this perade I was happy to see the silent protests.
Soldiers slouching, a little out of line and step. Some were even seen waving from their tanks.
Good job and Happy Birthday.

[MissouriDem47]

14. I refused to watch the parade

From what I have read it appears that it was the complete waste of time and money that I and others expected.

[Renew Deal]

15. Well said

50-50 that he'll be complaining tomorrow about the lack of goose stepping

[fierywoman]

17. I didn't watch it (didn't want them to think I was excited to watch it) -- what I noticed was that

it seems that the Army on purpose made the whole thing as abjectly unmilitaristic as possible -- in fact, it was downright pedantic, tedious, boring, even non-threatening. (Bravo, Army !)

[Hekate]

18. Thanks for these observations, PeaceWave. Choreography isn't one of their strong suits...

In fact, pulling together artistic or governmental talent just isn’t something they can do at all (Hello Kid Rock. Hello Whiskey Pete) considering that their only criterion for hiring is loyalty to Dear Leader.

[ThoughtCriminal]

19. I remeber seeing a video of a WW-2 Victory Parade

To me the faces of the soldiers did not show much enthusiasm for the parade. They looked tired. They had just fought a war and just wanted to get this last duty over with and go home.

[MineralMan]

24. This recalls for me a poem I once saw inscribed in a bathroom stall:

It started like this:

"Here I sit,
All broken-hearted..."