31143503276 825a845602 o February 26,1919 - World War I Welcome Home parade in Washington, D.C. - along Pennsylvania Ave. (Photo via Nashville Public Library.)

How the Great War could reign on Trump’s parade

By Bryan Bender
via the Politico.com web site

Many of President Donald Trump’s critics fear he will start World War III.

But he may bring good news for devotees of World War I.

This coming Veterans Day, the weekend selected for Trump’s $30 million military parade, is also the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War on Nov. 11, 1918. That’s the conflict that gave birth to the national veterans' holiday and planted seeds for many of the global convulsions that have erupted since.

Bastille Day 2017 President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump watch the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees, in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. | Michel Euler/AP Photo Neither the president nor the Pentagon has remarked on the historical significance of the parade date. But it hasn't gone unnoticed by the federal commission that has sought for five years to heighten public awareness about the cataclysmic conflict that toppled empires, introduced chemical warfare, drew the borders of the modern Middle East and helped spawn Soviet Russia.

The parade “presents a wonderful opportunity for us,” said Edwin Fountain, vice chair of the congressionally created World War One Centennial Commission, which is also raising money to construct a national memorial in Washington to the Great War. “We have suggested to the secretary of Defense and the White House that the thematic focus of the parade can and ought to be the centennial of the armistice.”

So far, the Pentagon has said only that the parade to be held in Washington will honor veterans from all branches of the military who fought in all of America's wars. "We’re still very early in the planning stages and therefore do not have any specific details to provide yet regarding the parade," said Air Force. Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is coordinating the planning.

Yet Fountain said he hopes that the timing of the parade will bestow special honor on the Americans who sacrificed in World War I, including nearly 117,000 who were killed and another 204,000 wounded. He also said the publicity surrounding the event could be used to highlight some of the enduring lessons of the war — including how easily regional disputes can still escalate into global ones.

"How can we learn the lesson of World War I? You look at Ukraine and you look at Syria and you wonder how those regional conflicts might escalate," Fountain said of two current wars where major rivals, including the United States and Russia, are on opposing sides.

"You can see how a conflict between forces we are each supporting could escalate and draw us in the same way as World War I," he added.

Read the entire article on the Politico.com web site here:

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maxresdefault General John Pershing leads the 1919 Welcome Home parade in Washington, DC for the U.S. troops returning home from Europe after World War I.