Trump’s military parade taps an ancient tradition of power: from Mesopotamia to Maga

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To Donald Trump, the inspiration is the pomp and pageantry of Bastille Day, France’s annual celebration of the 1789 revolution. For his critics, it is redolent of the authoritarian militarism proudly projected by autocracies like Russia, China and North Korea. Despite its military prowess and undoubted superpowers status, overt military displays in civilian settings are the exception rather than the rule in US history. But in bringing to the streets of Washington DC on Saturday the military parade Trump has long hankered after he – consciously or otherwise – is tapping into a tradition that harks back to antiquity. The...