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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
That would be appropriate. Chuck Norris does fiction. So do Trump and Hegseth.
Japan is not allowed to be martially aggressive anymore, so they have Japan Self-Defense Forces such as their Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the “JMSDF”. That’s in English, of course, because as with NATO the US has a big role in this scheme.
I especially like their aircraft carriers that they say are destroyers.
1965 Abbott. They have 5 of them, changed out the original Rolls Royce engine for a Cummins (couldn’t get parts and the Cummins is a lot more powerful). They have a 14 acre course. tankamerica.com. It was total awesomeness!
See this alone is why it is necessary to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
Nah. Department of the Navy would be much better as the source of our power is our maritime strength.
I think War Department is fine. It will remind people what is for rather than thinking its social laboratory.
How many people will change their minds about what they think the department does? And how much money would it cost to change all the signage, all the business cards, all the documents, etc.? Is that a price worth paying to maybe change the impression some few people have? How are we supposed to tell people they should take the Trump administration seriously about cutting the budget when they keep floating things that cost money and accomplish practically nothing useful?
I’m starting to suspect that Republican administrations who talk about efficiency are as phony as Democratic administrations.
Or maybe not.
Ha… I am Army, and well, I am just not going to stop making fun of the Navy at every opportunity I get! With that said, I have to agree with you, Skyler. I was actually just commenting along those lines a few days ago in the National Review group. Someone posted about shipbuilding in the US. After some exchanges, someone else said, “The US Navy was ready for WWI because Teddy Roosevelt increased and modernized ship building.”
This is what I replied with:
The Navy is the one service important enough to be created by the Constitution. No other service can secure sea lanes like the Navy. The Navy does suffer from one weakness it shares with the Air Force – all forces help win wars but to win, you must put boots on the ground. The Marines are the valuable tool for the Navy.