Trump’s army parade was neither the totalitarian North Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of MAGA nationalism fans craved
Trump’s army parade was neither the totalitarian North Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of MAGA nationalism fans craved
The American military doesn’t train to put on parade theatre for a despot. No high stepping, no elaborate formations or movements. None of that pointless bullshit. If you see a military parade from NK or China achieving dazzling perfect performances, while impressive, that’s all it is; a visual performance. All they do is practice for those events. Those are not uniforms. They’re costumes. Those are not soldiers. They’re a dance troupe. These are completely different skillsets. Soldiers don’t need to know how to dance perfectly in formation. They storm the objective, execute the mission, and get the fuck out. You might as well send a marching band into combat, because that’s all they would become.
It’s funny how they want to force the US military into performing flamboyant pageantry, while also kicking out the gays.
Frederick the Great’s legacy shines irony on many a homopgobic leader
To explain and expand a bit on this: Frederick the Great was likely gay or at least somewhat queer, but also a military innovator who laid the basis for Prussia’s iron discipline. Back then units were most effective when in perfect formation, but moving around the battlefield disrupted formation, hence the invention of the goose step to rapidly move units around on the battlefield without losing formation. Invented by a gay king.
So today we’ve got homophobic dictators emulating that for pure theatre and looks, over a century after it has lost any military purpose.
Additionally I’ve heard suspicion that some of the traditional pomp and theatrics that flow back to him are because he found it attractive.
If you’ve ever looked at all that dress military stuff snd thought that it just seemed a bit gayer than one would expect a military to get, just remember Frederick was that good. Like, made his small German kingdom into the European power of Prussia good.
Thats all nice what you said but its far more likely the members of the army just didnt care as much rather than they are incapable of marching in unison.
I know this from experience. Perfect formation marching must be drilled constantly. The US military does not waste its time with it because it is useless beyond Basic Training.
I agree that they clearly didn’t want to be at his stupid little parade. Yes, they half-assed it. It just blows my mind that Trump clearly expected pageantry when our military has never once put on such a show.
All I can think of, is Monty Python’s Close Order Nastiness. “We know where you’ve been, you military fairy! OOOOOH”