The left is howling Hitler again because of President Trump's proposal for a military parade. They're saying it's dictatorial, they're bringing up that Kim Jong Un has them, too. Even some on the right, such as #nevertrump Ralph Peters have pooh-poohed the idea as Frenchy vaingloriousness as if this were still the era of freedom fries.

It's nonsense. If the U.S. is going to celebrate and honor the military as it should instead of just pay lip service to the idea, it does well to hold a parade.

We actually need a parade. Because the reality is, we have won a war. Parades serve as markers, they institutionalize reality. Kim Jong Un may hold them, too, and he holds them all the time, but it's meaningless because his army hasn't won anything. But the vermin of ISIS, who took over whole countries, are now grease spots on the desert floor. They control no land, their vile remnants can be found in the arms of Europe's social services defending them among the vast refugee populations they created and now hide behind. They're no longer an existential threat, they're just scattered terrorists. As an actual power threatening nation-states, they are no more.

And that is thanks to our military.

Way out in hellholeville, in places like Syria and Iraq, in hundred-plus degree heat, our military fought for years without recognition. They encountered barbarians the news media has never dreamed up, a Ryder Haggard universe of cities with heads on pikes, wanton killing - barbarism and thuggery unimaginable in the civilized world. They destroyed that and the Obama administration never gave them any recognition. Obama's minions pretty well tied their hands out there and gave preferential deference to terrorists, which extended the war and raised our casualty count. Obama had absolutely no strategy other than to not displease the left, and he didn't even like the term 'winning.' With President Trump, our military has achieved victory, very quickly, as befits their enormous prowess and dedication.

It's important to mark and recognize this, because ever since the Vietnam War, the U.S. has scrapped victory parades, and doing this tends to make such wars forgotten, it melds them into one lump and everyone forgets them. One country that did achieve a lot of victory over its terrorist scourge, Colombia, held a lot of victory parades. They did it because they were victorious and wanted to lay that down for posterity. And it's noteworthy that municipalities and professional football teams hold victory parades. They know it marks something. How can it be that the spoiled brats of the NFL get victory parades and the mighty U.S. military doesn't? It's far more important that the military is so honored by a grateful nation.

They also may helpfully allow the U.S. to trot out its latest hardware for Kim Jong Un's inspection. Something like that would amount to jaw-jaw being better than war-war, as Churchill noted. At a minimum, it could concentrate the tyrant's mind.

Sure, parades are a hassle, and they probably cost servicemen their day off. But days off are not as important as setting markers, establishing that we Americans have accomplished something. They are as old as history. Yes, there will eventually be monuments (we hope). But is there not value in honoring the men and women who actually achieved the great feats together, while they are alive?

Trump is right. Bring back the victory parades.