GLENN: All right. We now have something in common with North Korea. This might upset a lot of people. But I want you listen carefully to what I say.
Kim Jong-un is planning a grand military parade, set to kick off tomorrow, and as confirmed by the White House yesterday, plans are in motion for our own version of a large spectacle military show, complete with tanks and everything else.
My question is, is this who we are?
A lot of people will argue, yeah, we've done this before. Have we?
We are not a country that emulates the actions of communist dictatorships. That's not who we are.
Now, this has nothing to do with respect for the military. We all respect the military.
Everybody who is a conservative -- and go you've ever listened to this show for half a second, you know how much we've done for the military and how we feel about the military. Let me remind you about the rally for America.
That is not the purpose of this military parade. North Korea, the Soviets, and any other nation that does these things, Democratic or not, is not trying to show their admiration for the men and women in uniform. They are only projecting power.
And in the case of France, if you want to say, well, France doesn't -- France has to do a parade like this once a year just to make sure the tanks still start.
So let's make it clear. There is a very huge difference between a Veterans Day parade or a Memorial Day Parade and a military demonstration of might. You ask anybody in the military, they do not want that kind of tribute.
With all of the amounts of -- do you know what it takes? The last time we did something like this, was at the end of a war. Don't tell me, well, we -- we -- we defeated ISIS.
Have we? We have certainly won this battle, but we have not won the war. Where will ISIS go next? What will they turn into?
When you bring all of the troops back, you can talk to me about the possibility of having a big exposé of all of our tanks and everything coming back. That's not what this is.
That's not what this is.
The last time we did this was 1991. And it was at the end of the first Gulf War. We welcomed people back. That's different.
Now, how much money is this going to cost?
What was it? $30 million in 1991?
80 million. 80 million. Or I'm sorry. $8 million in 1991. So that's probably about 30 million today.
Why not -- why not take the 30 million and put that into the VA? Why not divert some of that $30 million into programs that help our veterans find jobs after they come back to civilian life?
Here's how we show our military our admiration and respect: We take care of them. And we're not doing that.
That's what they really want. That is what they really deserve.
How many -- how many veterans feel worthless right now? How many feel like they don't have a purpose? How many veterans right now are suicidal?
How many veterans do we lose every day, to their own hand?
You want to show off American power, true American power isn't in the American government. True American power isn't in some awesome military, and we've got an awesome one.
True American power is in the spirit of the individual. It is in the care of other individuals. It's the opportunity that individual -- the individual has to change their life, become better than what they ever were, better than what anybody thought they could be. Better than what they were born into.
That's American greatness. That's American power. China can have tanks and missiles. For the love of Pete, North Korea can put on a fancy parade.
But the one thing they cannot -- they cannot replicate, no matter how many people they have, no matter how much money they spend, no matter how great their military is, they can never duplicate American ingenuity.
American ingenuity has become the most powerful force on planet earth because it is about the individual. At this very moment, a cherry red Tesla Roadster is in space on the way to the astroid belt. A mannequin named Starman HEP is sitting at the wheel and listening to David Bowie's Space Oddity playing on repeat.
Yesterday, SpaceX launced the Falcon Heavy. At more than 5 million pounds of thrust, it is the world's most powerful rocket.
Minutes after reaching space, two gigantic boosters that lifted the main capsule into space, detached and then remotely flew back to Cape Canaveral and landed with synchronization that would rival two Olympic ice skaters. The two boosters simultaneously deployed their landing legs and touched down side by side, on the landing pad.
Where else, but in America is that happening? Where is else could a man with a dream actually make that happen?
The government didn't do this. It was one man's dream. He pulled it off, with other like-minded dreamers at his own private company. That is American power.
And, you know what, that kind of power doesn't need a parade.
I have found -- I have found that people who have fame, who have fortune, who have power, are one of two kinds. They are either humble and they don't have to tell anybody about it, and those are the people who have lasting power. Those are people who have lasting fame.
And then there are those who are afraid of losing their power, that they have to tell everybody how powerful they are. The truly powerful don't need a show or a parade to prove their power. The truly intelligent don't need to tell people all the time how smart they are.
They just are.