The message is unmistakable. U.S. military forces haven’t operated under a defensive posture for some time. It has been about war -- about aggressively asserting American influence through force.
Was the Iraq War a defensive strategy? Hardly. With over a million Iraqis dead, it was never about protecting U.S. soil. Is Ukraine about American defense? Evidently not -- Ukraine is a reclaimed territory of Russia, not a direct threat to U.S. sovereignty.
At first, I thought the renaming might be ironic -- a dark joke, perhaps. After all, good humor signals intelligence and empathy. It builds social bonds through shared laughter. And calling things what they are can be a form of sincerity, even honesty.
But this is no joke. The department is now officially the Department of War. That may well be a declaration. "Call it what it is" has become a hallmark of Trump’s rhetorical style. As Putin and Zelensky may meet in the coming weeks, let’s hope GOP war hawks grasp the deeper message: words matter, and so do the consequences they signal.