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War Department. Oh, Hell No!
Pete Hegseth has done and said some good things, but today I learned that he wants to rename the Department of Defense to the War Department.
Hell no.
First, I tire of renaming things. It’s a name. It’s fine, stop renaming things.
Second, and as importantly, the War Department was for the army. The Navy and Marine Corps were in the Navy Department. The name Department of Defense was not a renaming of the War Department, as so many seem to claim. It was a compromise name to combine the Navy and Army into one agency. We haven’t won a war since.
We have an army and it is fine. No complaints. But it is a mistake to conclude that our most important military branch is the Army. We are by nature a maritime nation. We have become the dominant and most powerful nation in the history of the world because we are strong on the seas, and have maintained the Pax Americana by keeping the sea lanes free and open. Any military venture (where military means army) we have attempted has been successful only because of our navy.
There is no reason to put the Navy and Marine Corps into the Army. Flat out no. That is a non-starter, Mr. Hesgeth.
Published in General
How about Department of FAFO?
Pete Hesgeth appears to be a Robert A. Heinlein fan. Reflects well on him.
Navy was under War during Washington’s time as PotUS. Personally, I prefer Department of External Aggression. I could also go for Department of Killing Enemies and Breaking their Things.
I think it’s a time waster.
I am voting for “Department to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women”.
Priceless!
I like it. Congress names in a way that influence tax payers. People will a lot more on a “department of defense” than a “department of war”. Likewise Congress named “Medicaid” to sound like “Medicare”, so that politicians could scare seniors about health care. Same with the Inflation Reduction Act and the PATRIOT Act. We should name things in a way that people do not want Congress to throw money at the program. Corruption and debt are an existential threat and we should use human psychology to curb spending. Manipulative naming is a form of emotive conjugation.
Also, Congress doesn’t have the power to declare “defense.”
And it seems to make them squeamish, even cowardly.
I gotta add the comma:
I am voting for “Department to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women”.
Just like “prevent defense” has never won a football game.
If not the Department of War, it should at least be the Department of Offense.
Offense is action. Defense is reactionary.
How about “The United States Marine Corps and Friends?”
I could get behind that! :)
I suspect a lot of this stuff is being done for no practical reason; it is being done so there will be more pages about Donald Trump in history books. Except for sign-makers, whose lives have been improved by renaming Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America?
Now, that does not surprise me.
How about Department of Forever Wars?
I could go with naming several departments “ The Department of Corruption and Debt”🤔
Well, there was this thing called the Cold War. The Soviet Union was a threat to the US through the first 36 years of my life. Can’t seem to recall it offering any threat in the last 34 years. Maybe I am wrong and it is still around.
I thought that’s what it had been for the last sixty years.
I think changing the name is a bad idea. It will look as though we are thinking about being an aggressor in world affairs rather than a defender. We have earned the respect of the world because we don’t colonize or take territory or start wars.
We need to fully appreciate how the rest of the world sees us: as the country that has the means to use atomic weapons and as the country that has actually used them. Other countries have put those fears aside because we have been so clear that we are not aggressive. That has gained us a lot of political capital in world affairs.
Changing the name is bad marketing for the United States brand.
Exactly what I was going to post . . .
How about Department of Retaliation?
That way it cannot be accused to be promoting first-strike warmongering.
You are very funny. 😂
That was a glib line, not to be taken literally or even seriously. For instance, like every country that has attacked Afghanistan in recorded history we won the war there. We got to leave, the Afghanis have to stay.
First, we want to deter aggression. What name best matches that goal.
Second, if deterrence fails, we should want to quickly quick ass, take names, and win quickly and overwhelmingly. What name promotes that goal.
Third, we should eliminate the two names that most apply today, Meals on Wheels Dept, and Cut and Run Dept.
What has the name “Department of Defense” done for us? But then is it the name or our government leadership that has determined outcomes in the past?
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
(some guy named Bill)
It is absolutely our government leadership that has caused a lot of problems, as well as structural problems in the DoD recently that have treated war as a regularly scheduled event, cycling units through deployments regardless of progress in winning any war, leaving no motivation for generals and other officers to stick their necks out to actually win.
I agree.
But on the plus side, the notion of renaming The Dept of Defense to The Dept of War is still a step up from the Biden era insistence that the most important aspect of our military is its firm commitment to DEI and to giving trans gendered AntiFa the clearest possible route to promotion.
Sorry, I was in a hurry before I got to drive a tank for my birthday (3/25). Mrs. Bunsen is the best for such an awesome gift. Thanks for the correction.
How is the tank? Still in operating condition?
Department of Chuck Norris.
Man, I got a good laugh out of that one.