The Trump Show

The Pentagon delegation invited to join President Donald Trump on the National Mall for July Fourth includes acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and a variety of top civilian officials and officers from the military services — but not the service chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps.

[...]

The only service chief in attendance will be Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz. Instead of their top officers, the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps are sending a group of their next tier of leaders, including Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bob Burke, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson, incoming Army Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Joseph Martin and one of several deputy commandants of the Marine Corps, Lt. Gen. Eric Smith.

  Politico

Seems fitting for an administration that has so many "acting" heads of agencies.

President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday that the nation’s military leaders are “thrilled” that he’s trotting out a dazzling display of troops, tanks, helicopters and fighter jets for his personal Independence Day celebration.

But multiple former military leaders are publicly expressing dismay, calling it the latest example of Trump politicizing the armed services.

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‘This looks like it’s becoming much more of a Republican Party event,’ says one retired general.

  Politico

Probably looks like that because it is.

"This looks like it’s becoming much more of a Republican Party event — a political event about the president — than a national celebration of the Fourth of July, and it’s unfortunate to have the military smack dab in the middle of that,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. troops in Afghanistan under President George W. Bush.

[...]

"It’s looking highly politicized by anybody’s yardstick."

“The president is using the armed forces in a political ploy for his reelection campaign and I think it’s absolutely obscene,” added retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, a veteran of Vietnam, the Gulf War and peacekeeping operations in the Balkans.

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Other aircraft may include F-22 and F-35 fighters, one of the aircraft used as Air Force One, and even a massive B-2 stealth bomber, according to CNN. In addition, ABC reported an MV-22 Osprey "tiltrotor" aircraft will be on hand, and the event could mark the public debut of the Marine Corps’ new presidential helicopter, the VH-92.

Maybe then Trump will stop saying the F-35 is invisible.

But the Fourth of July is not traditionally a holiday focused on the military — unlike the Bastille Day celebrations in France that so impressed Trump in 2017 and inspired his interest in a major military display.

In fact, if he wants it to reflect the military aspect of America's independence from England, it should feature muskets and canons.

"Military displays like this are a favorite tactic of those who want to wrap themselves in the symbols of who we are rather than really celebrating who we are,” said Jason Dempsey, a former Army major who studies the military and society at the Center for a New American Security, a nonpartisan think tank.

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“This fits into this larger, troubling trend of identifying America itself as a military state. The Fourth of July in America should be about so much more than our military and our ability to fight off the rest of the world.”

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"I hope the speech doesn’t become partisan, because troops shouldn’t be listening to the president talk about the other party," agreed retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré. "Presidents usually leave their party business out when they talk in front of military audiences, but people are becoming numb to it."

He's certainly done it before when speaking to servicemen and women. And I see no reason to think this won't be a campaign speach, no matter what the administration is saying publicly about it.

Just last month, then-acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan called on troops and their leaders to "reinforce the apolitical nature of military and civilian service." He offered those words in a pair of memos issued after an episode in which the White House's military office had asked the Navy to keep the destroyer USS John McCain out of sight during a presidential visit to Japan.

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“This is not such a big deal. It’s all been done before,” said Ron Moeller, an Air Force veteran and former senior CIA paramilitary officer — though not on Independence Day, he acknowledged.

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The military display on Thursday could be expensive. For example, flying a B-2 stealth bomber will likely require a journey from an Air Force base as far away as Missouri or Florida.

"That will be millions of dollars in and of itself," estimated Rick Berger, a Defense budget expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

But he also said Trump's military display could enhance military recruiting efforts and public knowledge of the armed forces.

“I don’t think it’s the worst thing to ship up a few vehicles out of the thousands that we own to maybe give some young Americans a glimpse of what the military looks like,” Berger said.

Seriously? In what decade are you living? In what country?

Still, "this celebration definitely seems to be more politicized than in the past," he added, "but so is everything."

Bingo.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.