Why so many concerns about the damage?

Local officials in Washington have raised concerns about what kind of damage the parade could cause if 70-ton tanks and other armored vehicles are involved. That stems from a lesson learned after the 1991 celebration, after which roads needed to be repaved.

“We would always be concerned about the impact on the city, the impact on safety, the impact on pulling personnel, the impact on our roadways, and quite frankly, the attention it would attract,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat, said Wednesday. “Usually when you see big military parades, it’s celebrating an end of a war, and I don’t think that’s been announced.”