Let me get this straight.
We’re going to spend $30 million for a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue on Veterans Day.
Thirty million is relative chump-change compared to the $5.6 trillion we have spent on our so-called “global” so-called “war on” so-called “terrorism” so far; still, one can’t help but wonder:
1. Given that this nation is rapidly approaching a $21 trillion national debt and, given that this year’s federal budget (assuming one ever gets done) is running at close to a $1 trillion deficit, do we not have better things on which to spend our money?
2. Given this nation’s military’s involvement in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, who knows where in Africa, the South China Sea, Korea and one can only imagine where else, do our soldiers, sailors, Marines, Air and Coast Guard members and all their gear and equipment not have better things to do than to get ready for, participate in and recover from a parade, especially on Veterans Day, normally a long-weekend training holiday? Like spending time with their families, for example?
3. Given that that $30 million covers just the cost to the Department of Defense to put on Trump’s parade, how much is it going to cost the rest of the federal government — and the governments of District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland — to prepare for preserving, then protecting law-and-order (and possibly even the freedoms of speech, assembly, etc.) on the streets of D.C. that day, and again, recovering? It is highly unlikely that flag-waving, open-carry Trumpatistas and other faithfully, dutifully lined up “patriots” behind the barricades and saluting on-cue, will be in the only ones in town for the festivities come Nov. 11, 2018. (For backstory, see: http://notrumpmilitaryparade.us/.)
4. Most importantly, given the number of veterans in this country whose government has utterly, absolutely failed in its ultimate duty and responsibility to provide the unconditionally very best-in-the-world (let alone “adequate and sufficient,” or even simply “necessary”) physical and mental health and other material care, assistance and support for the women and men who have served in this nation’s defense: Would not that $30 million be better spent taking care of the veterans we already have, instead of on advertising — and justifying — the need for more?
I call on every veteran, every veterans organization, and every citizen to decry and denounce this absurd, bone-headed waste of time, money, energy, effort and life force; demand that Congress refuse to allow one single dime to be spent on it; and boycott any organizations, corporations or other institutions that sign on as supporters, co-sponsors, and/or cohort compeers of this goat rope.
• Jeffrey G. Moebus is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant and resides in Sitka.
