[nixon_why69]

I'm not disagreeing with you but "Dept of War" is ENTIRELY a cosmetic change. It's literally just a name. There are people, mostly with desk jobs, who really want to feel like badasses and they really want the Dept of War. The real human consequences of this are unimportant to them and sadly unimportant to the rest of us also.

[delichon]

Cosmetic changes are frequently decisive in politics. "literally just a name" discounts the genuine power of names.

[nixon_why69]

Agreed 100%

[avaer]

If you go to https://www.war.gov/ it says Department of War. The person in charge calls himself the Secretary of War. Warfighters are being sent into Iran. Presumably to engage in warfare. People are gonna die.

What's cosmetic about this?

[delichon]

Agree, essentially the Department of War is the Department of Defense with a little less makeup.

[WrongAssumption]

Seems more accurate to me. Department of Defense was the one that seemed like a euphemism.

[lo_zamoyski]

It's cosmetic because it is business as usual.

And the DoW was the original name from 1789 to 1947.

[pfannkuchen]

Wasn’t it originally called the department of war also? If anything “department of defense” was doublespeak, as it was already primarily for war.

[lo_zamoyski]

Indeed it was, from 1789 to 1947. It was then changed to Departments of Army and Air Force, later the National Military Establishment, and finally the Department of Defense in 1949.