Army Day
It’s the Army’s birthday today, and there’s a parade. In a cost conscious, budgeting cutting world, however, I wonder why we’re spending millions of dollars to drive tanks through downtown Washington D.C. to celebrate. Then we’re going to spend millions of dollars fixing the damage to the roads. To me, and I’m just an old guy, in the boondocks of Texas, it seems it might have been wiser to continue funding Alzheimer research and leave the tanks at home. Let the troops march, because that’s what troops do, but I don’t need to see the hardware.
Besides this reminds me of the pictures I used to see of the Soviets parading around on May Day with their tanks, rockets, and goose-stepping troops while Stalin, or Khrushchev, or Brezhnev stood there looking imperious or imperial. I don’t think we need a parade to show off our military might when we’ve got folks sitting in Nebraska flying drones in Africa, killing random bad guys. I think the world knows what we can do.
Personally, I’m good with projecting our might by helping people who need help. That’s why I liked the Peace Corps. Unfortunately, we gutted USAID and I have no idea why. And it’s not like we’re turning around and spending the money at home. About the only good I can see coming out of all of this cutting is that folks who previously had no idea what the government does on a daily basis are now finding out because a lot of that money was spent at the state and local level. Maybe it will help us remember that once upon a time we thought kindness paid dividends.