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What is it about a man in uniform?
For decades, even centuries, the allure has been a romantic cliché. But swooning heroines are not the only ones who love the look. So do autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un — and so, apparently, does President Trump, who has fantasized about a military parade since his first term, when he was publicly taken by the spectacle of the Bastille Day parade in Paris featuring soldiers in all their spit-shined glory marching down the Champs-Élysées.
Well, on Saturday he will get his wish, just in time for his 79th birthday, which happens to coincide with the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army. Not to mention Flag Day.
That’s when 6,600 soldiers, resplendent in uniforms representing conflicts from the Revolutionary War to today, as well as hundreds in full contemporary battle dress, will march in formation down Constitution Avenue and across the National Mall, medals gleaming, hardware flashing, like nothing so much as soldier supermodels in mid-strut.
If you think that comparison is a reach, consider that Mr. Trump himself offered it up during his West Point commencement speech in late May, saying of the cadets: “These are good-looking people, I’ll tell you. General, what’s going on over here? Looks like all a bunch of male models.”
Of course, there are women at West Point, though they are a minority, and they will be in the parade.
