Pitiful Display in US Military Parade as Troops Unleashed Across the Country to Quell Rebellion

Peter Cherry

President Trump staged a military parade in Washington DC last Saturday, with tanks rolling down the streets of America’s capital for the first time in decades since the end of the imperialist First Gulf War. It was to be held on the day of Trump’s birthday and for the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the US Army. The objective of the parade was to be a “patriotic celebration” that would “showcase US military might” and “draw talented Americans to serve [in the military],” but instead revealed itself as a desperate and theatrical maneuver typical of the arch-reactionary fraud in the White House.

Prior to the military parade, the Pentagon and Secret Service were preparing for anywhere between 200,000 to 1 million people attending. On the day of the event, there was a sparse turnout, with bourgeois media noting empty bleachers, dispersed crowds, and overall lower-than-expected attendance.

In regard to the goal of recruitment, despite promises to “restore the warrior ethos” and increase enlistment, the sad little circus on wheels is likely to do little to stop the profound recruitment crisis of imperialism: nearly 80% of American youth are ineligible to serve without waivers, and the Army has missed its recruitment targets by tens of thousands in recent years. Even with lowered standards and increased bonuses, it has been difficult to convince working class youth to risk their lives for the decaying system.

The parade comes amid the White House’s deployment of nearly 5,000 troops to assault and intimidate the uprising in Los Angeles, California. Several states across the country also deployed their National Guard to contain the solidarity uprisings, which rekindled in various cities on Saturday. Trump has relished in unleashing federal soldiers on the people, saying that those resisting ICE arrests at schools and work sites as well as those appearing for their monthly check-ins at immigration court represent “violent insurrectionist mobs” and are part of a “Migrant Invasion.”

The parade follows Trump’s praise for Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran, part and parcel of the ongoing US-Israeli attempt at “regime change” in Iran just as the US has done in Libya, Syria and Iraq with disastrous consequences for the masses of the Greater Middle East. The US has provided Israel support in intercepting Iranian drones and missiles, and there has been discussion of the US providing bunker busting bombs to Israel to attack Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

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