I have to say, speaking as an old soldier who served in the last years of the Cold War, including the first Gulf War, I like what the Trump administration and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are doing with our nation's armed forces. No more job programs for the neurotic, no more DEI, no more "first woman-identifying LGBTQWTFBBQ+++ five-spirit forest elf glockenspiel to command the 82nd Airborne Division" - none of that horse squeeze. We are going to have the military we need, a military of warfighters. In time, and if we can keep leadership with above room-temperature IQs in the position to do this (that excludes most Democrats) and to keep up the current plan, we'll have a splendidly equipped, highly trained, motivated, dedicated force, with blood in their eyes and dust on their boots.
Best of all, there will be no more shillyshallying around about the terminology. Only moments ago, we learned that, on Friday, President Trump will sign an executive order renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Friday to alter the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War — reverting to the agency’s former namesake, Fox News Digital has learned.
Both Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently have indicated that they want to change the name of the agency. It is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has spearheaded as part of its "warrior ethos" campaign within the Pentagon.
A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Thursday that Trump would roll out the name change Friday. The executive order calls for using the Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with terms like the "Secretary of War" for Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet.
The order also instructs Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to make the name change permanent.
That last line may be the hitch; President Trump may have the power to re-name DoD in the short term, but another Democrat president could just change it back. As is so often the case, making this a long-term change will require Congress to act, and we should remember, the Republican majority, particularly in the House of Representatives, is narrow. Someone will have to sponsor this legislation, and then we'll see if Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune can herd enough cats to get such a bill through.
I like the change regardless. Our military men and women are supposed to be warfighters. War is their business. War is their trade. Let's not beat around the bush.
Read More: Pete Hegseth Asks: Should We Change the Name of the Department of Defense?
Note that his isn't a reversion back to the WW2-era structure, with a War Department overseeing the Army, a Navy Department in charge of the Navy and Marines, and later, a Department of the Air Force. The current Department of Defense (DoD) oversees all six services, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. From what we know of the president's plan, the structure will remain in place; the name is what's changing. Yes, it's a semantic change, not a structural one, but I like it all the same.
I'll close with my favorite martial quote, from Heraclitus of Ephesus:
Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.
Fighters and warriors. That's what we need. That's what we deserve. And our fighters and warriors deserve to have their command structure reflect that.
Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.
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