The Context
On Friday, September 5, President Donald Trump signed an executive order “to restore the historic name ‘Department of War’ as a secondary title for the Department of Defense,” as a fact sheet put out by the White House explains.
“The Order authorizes the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’ ‘Department of War,’ and ‘Deputy Secretary of War’ in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch.”
This move has sparked criticism from Democrats as well as some current and former defense officials, with the main criticism seeming to be the cost of the name change.
“The estimate to change the names of hundreds of Pentagon agencies and all their stationary, emblems and signage — both at home in the U.S. and at bases overseas — has been placed at upwards of billions of dollars,” The Hill reports.
Trump has also faced criticism for campaigning on ending wars and being a “peace president” but is now evidently signaling to the world that he’s intent on waging war, not ending it.
In an article on Trump’s executive order, CNN explained the history of the Department of War and how it became the Department of Defense:
The Department of War, as it as once called, was first established by President George Washington when he founded the country’s Army. But the name was later changed in 1949 as part of a broader reorganization of the military under President Harry Truman.
Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947, which merged the Department of the Navy, the newly created Department of the Air Force, and the Department of the Army — previously the Department of War, according to the Army — into one organization called the National Military Establishment, under the civilian secretary of defense. The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense in August 1949.
The Take
In one sense, this move is largely performative, as it doesn’t really change anything. The name “Department of Defense” is simply a veil over what our military is actually used for; namely, building and maintaining the US empire. If our military were solely used for defense, that name would be fitting, but that isn’t the case. Changing the word “defense” to “war” is actually a much more honest framing.
That doesn’t mean there’s no cause for concern, however.
The criticism that Trump campaigned on ending wars but is now signaling that he intends to wage them is a fair one, and his recent actions provide even more reason to see this as an indication of what is to come.
Since taking office in January, Trump has continued US support for the war in Ukraine and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, bombed Yemen and Iran, and “has shattered the record for total US airstrikes in Somalia in a single calendar year,” as Antiwar.com’s Dave Decamp reports. “The previous record for US airstrikes in Somalia in a single year was set at 63 in 2019 during President Trump’s first term.” According to Decamp, the total number so far this year is currently at 68.
Within the last couple of weeks, Trump has also deployed warships to the Southern Caribbean — near Venezuela’s coast — and launched a strike on a small boat killing nearly a dozen people. Trump claims those people were “narco-terrorists” from Venezuela who were intending to smuggle fentanyl into the US, but no evidence has been presented to back up that claim.
Trump has even deployed the National Guard into major US cities in order to combat crime, a move which is controversial to say the least.
All of that is to illustrate that Trump is nowhere near the “peace president” he campaigned on being. Not only has he continued the wars that were already taking place before he took office, but he has also started several new wars since. His decision to change the Department of Defense to the Department of War seems to indicate that this tendency to use military force will continue, and the language he and his Secretary of Defense (now Secretary of War), Pete Hegseth, have been using further demonstrates this.
When speaking to reporters in the Oval Office at the signing of this executive order, Hegseth said “this name change is not just about renaming, it’s about restoring… restoring the warrior ethos… restoring intentionally to the use of force.” Hegseth went on to say that the War Department is going to “go on offense, not just defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.”
This language certainly suggests that the Trump administration intends to use military force wherever they see fit, which ensures that the US will continue to be engaged in war and conflict all over the world. Of course, as I stated earlier, this is exactly how the military has been used by former presidents for decades. Aside from the implication that things are going to escalate from here, the only real difference brought about by this name change is the removal of the euphemistic language that was used to mask the military’s true purpose.
This isn’t to criticize the brave men and women who join the military with the intention of serving their country. It is, however, a criticism of our military and foreign policy establishments that perpetuate war and conflict and exploit the bravery and patriotism of our service members to achieve nefarious ends that have nothing to do with our national interest.
In my opinion, this situation provides a great example of a major reason why much of the establishment seems to hate Donald Trump. It’s not because he is fighting the “Deep State” or that he’s any sort of threat to the status quo. It’s because he’s an honest representation of the US empire. Unlike former-President Barack Obama, who could bomb seven different countries and go on to win a Nobel Peace Prize and be revered even to this day due to his ability to cushion the abuses of the empire in soft and eloquent language, Trump simply says whatever is on his mind, often saying the quiet part out loud and revealing the true ugliness of the US empire.
While this name change will have no real effect on how the US military functions, it does seem to imply that war is on the horizon. As US citizens, who Trump is ostensibly meant to represent, we should demand that he fulfill his campaign promise of ending US involvement in foreign wars. US military intervention has led to disaster again and again for decades, and unless real change occurs soon, more disaster is likely on its way.
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