U.s. Department of War

This is the explanation from the White House:

> The Founders chose this name to signal our strength and resolve to the world. The name “Department of War,” more than the current “Department of Defense,” ensures peace through strength, as it demonstrates our ability and willingness to fight and win wars on behalf of our Nation at a moment’s notice, not just to defend. This name sharpens the Department’s focus on our own national interest and our adversaries’ focus on our willingness and availability to wage war to secure what is ours.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/rest...

Their statements make it clear it’s about projecting the image of strength – c.f. Hegseth talking about winning wars – but I would say it’s more honest. The last time our ability to defend the mainland was really in question was the civil war, so calling it the department of war is more accurately reflecting the more voluntary nature of conflict since then.

> The White House is yet to say how much a rebrand would cost, but US media expect a billion-dollar price tag for the overhaul of hundreds of agencies, emblems, email addresses and uniforms.

--BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr9r4qr0ppo

Just another way to rob the country.

This name is much more accurate. The US isn't invaded, they invade.

You got me.

The best I could posit was to further the Trump plan to force US allies and not allies to team up together, isolating America from the taint of globalism.

For a more informed opinion, US Historian Heather Cox Richardson had much to say; an excerpt being:

  …

  In 1949, Congress replaced the National Military Establishment name, whose initials sounded unfortunately like “enemy,” with Department of Defense. The new name emphasized that the Allied Powers of World War II would join together to focus on deterring wars by standing against offensive wars launched by big countries against their smaller neighbors. Although Trump told West Point graduates this year that “[t]he military's job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime, and any place,” in fact, the stated mission of the Department of Defense is “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”

  …

  Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has pushed the change because he sees it as part of his campaign to spread a “warrior ethos” at the Pentagon. Today he said the name change was part of “restoring intentionality to the use of force…. We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality, violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this War Department, Mr. President, just like America, is back.”

  In 1947, when the country dropped the “War Department” name, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army—the highest-ranking officer on active duty—was five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is unusual for anyone to suggest that Eisenhower, who led the Allied troops in World War II, was insufficiently committed to military strength. Indeed, the men who changed the name to “Defense Department” and tried to create a rules-based international order did so precisely because war was not a game to them. Having seen the carnage of war not just on the battlefield but among civilians who faced firebombing, death camps, homelessness, starvation, and the obscenity of atomic weapons, they hoped to find a way to make sure insecure, power-hungry men could not start another war easily.

  …

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-5-2025

It's worth revisiting a prime example of day drinker Hegseth personally demonstrating "restoring intentionality to the use of force…"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrVdFnjEjs

Renaming like this is kind of dumb. Historically, Department of War governed the US Army. This rename does an injustice to the US Navy, Air Force and Space Force, lumping them all under "war". It's pretty clearly done on the whim of Trump, which is no way to run a republic.

Admitting that would ruin the facade, so there will be some advanced hermeneutics pushed to justify the rename.

I'm guessing it's the response to the recent Chinese military expression of might celebrating the new "axis of evil"

It diverts the attention of the public from other notable topics.

actually...

:) :) :)

Come on, they'll prefer sub directories, so the "slash" :)

war.gov/iran

war.gov/venezuela

Also Cheetos, Mountain Dew and NordVPN, I'd hope.