File under: All right to show your stuff as long as you are known to be impotent

As TigerHawk observes: "Can anybody imagine a phalanx of tanks such as this on Pennsylvania Avenue? ... Is there any other major democracy that parades its military the way the French do?"

It's more costly to parade your tanks if you might actually want to use them for their intended purpose. The implication is: contrary to first impressions, parading them shows you are not likely to use them. That may be exactly what the French want to communicate.

An alternative theory is that the worldwide outcry that would follow such parades in Bonn, London or Washington deters them. It wouldn't be politically correct.