President Donald Trump was massively ridiculed after having the audacity to call for a military parade in Washington D.C. Becuase if you’re going to convince your critics that you’re not a fascist dictator, it’s not by doing the same thing that North Korea does every day.
Our slip towards full-blown authoritarian dictatorship by a multiple draft-dodger has never been more apparent.
What do members of the military have to say about this gross violation of democratic values and abuse of the military?
Several retired high-ranking military officials spoke out about Trump’s orders for the Pentagon to begin planning a big parade and they’re less than pleased. Like most sensible people with even the smallest knowledge of the Constitution and democratic values, the military professionals regard such parades as hallmarks of totalitarian regimes.
Worse yet, it would give the world the message that our previously robust democracy is using the military to promote a dangerously unstable and possibly sociopathic madman who is not abiding by the Constitution.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said:
“A lot of countries have histories of longtime military conquest and the power and strength of the military supporting the government, but since our inception that has not been who we are.
We’re the only nation in the world that defends a piece of paper. An ideology. And to say we’re going to strut our stuff with tanks and rocket launchers and things like that, is just not a good representation of what the military does in a democratic nation.”
Naturally, Hertling got a lot of flak from Trump’s moronic army of mostly cowards who never served a day in uniform.
.@jaketapper I did the same on Twitter. Got some pretty “sporty” comments, many laced with profanity. It’s obvious: most military hate parades, most think this a really dumb idea. Not a scientific survey though. https://t.co/TCEvMMRWtH
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) February 7, 2018
Another retired general weighed in on his criticism of Trump’s fascist tendencies.
“Donald Trump has continually shown himself to have authoritarian tendencies and this is just another worrisome example, said Retired Major General Paul Eaton, a Senior Adviser VoteVets, a progressive political organization devoted to electing veterans to office. For someone who just declared that it was ‘treasonous’ to not applaud him, and for someone who has, in the past, admired the tactics of everyone from Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin, it is clear that a military parade isn’t about saluting the military — it is about making a display of the military saluting him.”
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly really needs to give the man-baby president some toys to play with down in the driveway at Mar-a-Lago so the few adults in that insane administration can do the serious work of governing in a representative democracy.
Featured image via Progress Tribune
