The Left is whipping up a brouhaha over President Trump's use of military tanks in the upcoming Fourth of July celebration.

It's not unprecedented — tanks have rolled before in years past.  And U.S. tanks are the world's finest, and the U.S. military tankers who run them are the world's best, having used the instruments to win victories.  But from Trump's critics' point of view, dictators do that, and in their minds, Trump likes dictators, therefore having a few tanks at the Fourth of July celebration means he must want to be a dictator, too.

They misread him.

The picture for us normals is obvious enough.  Trump is a showman, and he is out to restore some kind of semblance of pride in the U.S. — his "Make America Great Again" theme.  The U.S. wins its wars, but there is never such a thing as a victory celebration, let alone parade.  An earlier effort by Trump to have one got squelched.  But the tanks and military processions on the Fourth do just a little bit to celebrate our much uncelebrated men and women in uniform, as they well deserve.  For that reason alone, tanks are appropriate.

But I think there may be something even more clever going on.  Yes, tanks are indeed used by third-world dictators and oligarchs — in Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, any place where dictators seek to impress.

Might Trump just be sending a message to those people, some kind of wave of the flag so they know enough not to get too close, to not provoke us?  Might just a little show of the tanks remind them of whom they're messing with?  Might a picture stick in their minds?

It's a language they understand, because it's a language they actually speak. 

The tanks serve the purpose of communicating to other dictators that free America is not to be jacked with.  The world's dictators will be watching this show closely, and its pictures will stick in their heads.  More show, less need to make us go over there.

For that reason alone, Trump should go for it. 

Image credit: U.S. Marines.