There's a big parade in Washington, D.C. this evening, on the streets, tanks, and thousands of soldiers.

In the air, flyovers and parachute jumps. And for taxpayers, a big price tag as much as $45 million.

It's all to honor the Army's 250th anniversary today, which is also President Trump's 79th birthday.

Richard Cohn is a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

and a former chief of Air Force history at the Pentagon.

Mr. Cohn, we've had military parades in the past, not a lot of them.

The last one was in 1991 after the first Gulf War. Put this into some perspective for

us. What have the sort of the tone of military parades been like through history, and how does

this one fit into that context? Well, most of the military parades have been to celebrate and

commemorate war or battlefield victories

of great historic meaning. Now, this one's a little unusual because it's an important

commemoration of 250 years of the Army's contribution to American defense and American society. And now it's been

linked to President Trump's birthday, which I think is unfortunate, but nevertheless the case.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has said he's concerned about the message this parade is going to send, that it may send the wrong message.

He said, this is more fitting for North Korea, the former Soviet Union.

What do you say to that?

What's your reaction to that?

Well, I can understand because in a sense it's those parades and commemorations are always meant to buttress the

power and the place of autocrats in their society and linking this to President Trump

smacks of that.

And also, most of our parades are of the people involved in the

military and not of hardware. Flyovers, yes, for events, but we're used to those in sporting

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