{"id":54884,"date":"2025-09-03T08:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T16:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=54884"},"modified":"2025-09-03T08:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T16:15:12","slug":"the-department-of-forever-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/03\/the-department-of-forever-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The Department of ‘Forever’ War"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump made it known early last week that he plans to change the Pentagon\u2019s name from the Department of Defense to the Department of War.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This would not be the first time the Pentagon has held the more aggressive moniker. After World War II, the Truman administration reorganized the Department of War and renamed it the Department of Defense. This was meant to help centralize power over the different branches of the military.<\/p>\n

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Trump and his Fox News host-turned-Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claim the change aims to reclaim and restore a \u201cwarrior ethos.\u201d <\/strong>The true intention behind the change, however, is more dubious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe comments from the Administration and its supporters imply that the change from ‘Department of War’ to ‘Department of Defense’ in 1949 signaled a loss of resolve to use violence to achieve national objectives,\u201d said senior fellow Matthew Hoh<\/strong>. \u201cOf course, the body counts from American wars, all lost since that name change, tell otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRenaming a bully doesn\u2019t change the bully\u2019s nature,\u201d said associate director Christian Sorensen<\/strong>. \u201cBeholden to corporate interests, DOD will continue to bully independent nations and peoples until the American public unites and changes the profit-over-people economic system, whose will DOD implements.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump claims the name change is imminent, it will likely need Congressional approval. Since we have some time, our fellows have some new name suggestions.<\/p>\n

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Source: National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution<\/p><\/div>\n<\/picture>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThey should be even more honest and call it: The Department of Threat Inflation and Forever War.<\/p>\n

Or, like the Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” episode, we should admit America has entered a parallel universe where our military is nakedly imperialistic and bent on total domination,\u201d said senior fellow Bill Astore. <\/strong>\u201cHere’s another possible name: The Department of Imperial War and Genocidal Domination. Motto: Respect Our Authority!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt clearly became the ‘Department of Imperial War and Genocidal Domination’ some time ago,\u201d said senior fellow Coleen Rowley<\/strong>. \u201cBut before Trump came along, our insidious war propagandists must have still been a little worried about the old \u2018Nuremberg Principle\u2019 making wars of aggression the supreme crime. Trump’s just the little boy blurting out the truth of the Empire’s naked aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior fellow Karen Kwiatkowski<\/strong> pulled no punches in summarizing the harm that the Department of Defense inflicts around the world when she suggested it be renamed the \u201cDepartment of Foreign Intervention, Genocide, Hubris, Threats, Nefarious \u2018War Heroes\u2019 and Over-Rated Equipment Sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

A grim status quo, indeed.<\/p>\n

Finally, put most succinctly by senior fellow Ray McGovern<\/strong>: \u201cI suggest: DOMA. The Department of Macho Assholes.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever the name is, the administration can\u2019t erase the truth: the U.S. policy of infinite, forever war is killing us all. <\/strong>It does so in a few main ways: direct and indirect deaths<\/a>, including but not limited to civilians, U.S. troops, and U.S. contractors; underfunding public programs here at home, such as infrastructure, transportation, healthcare, and education, in order to overfund the massive military budget<\/a>; and polluting<\/a> the soil, air, and water upon which we rely.<\/p>\n

What do you think about the name change? Sound off in the comments at the original article at the Eisenhower Media Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Eisenhower Media Network (EMN)<\/em><\/a> is an organization of expert former military, intelligence, and civilian national security officials who have an independent, alternative story to tell.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump made it known early last week that he plans to change the Pentagon\u2019s name from the Department of Defense to the Department of War. This would not be the first time the Pentagon has held the more aggressive moniker. After World War II, the Truman administration reorganized the Department of War and renamed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1363],"class_list":["post-54884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54888,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54884\/revisions\/54888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54884"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=54884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}