Peters on Trump’s Parade: ‘If We Really Want to Honor Our Troops and Support Them, Pass the Defense Budget’

EXCERPT:

HEMMER: "President Trump telling the Pentagon to start planning a military parade to celebrate our U.S. armed forces. Apparently he was rather impressed a year ago Bastille Day in central Paris last July, a guest of the French President Emmanuel Macron. Lieutenant colonel Ralph Peters, Fox News strategic analyst. Sir, how are you doing? Maybe Macron will come back for this one. Because I think he's due in late April. What do you think of the idea to go ahead and show off the American mights perhaps even down Pennsylvania Avenue?"
PETERS: "The French march well. We fight well. Take your pick. If we really want to honor our troops and support them, pass the defense budget. Give them the tools and the funding they need. You know, I understand the president can be infatuated with the military regalia and trappings. It's very seductive. But we have a different tradition here. When we do have military parades we do honor the troops. It focuses on the human element not heavy metal war machines rolling down the streets of American cities. And by the way, Bill, on a very practical level, if you want to stage a huge parade you are taking troops away from their training, just throwing away the training schedules. It's expensive, the money can be better spent elsewhere. So if the president wants a parade he will get a parade, got it. But if we're going to have one I would concentrate on the human factor not tanks on the streets."