Trump’s Department of War rebrand is long overdue

When Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon executed an ill-conceived invasion of Iraq in 2003, was it really pursuing American defence? All but a handful of unreconstructed Iraq hawks would disagree. So it’s welcome news that President Trump has restored the Defense Department’s original name, the Department of War.Talk of renaming the DoD has roiled Republican circles for some time. During the 2024 GOP primary, Nikki Haley brainstormed about changing the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of Offense”. That was an unmistakable throwback to circa 2003 neoconservative blowhardery, and a good reminder of why the Haleys of the world...