[WatchDog]

After hearing Palmer Luckey's argument for the name change[0], I tend to think it's good change.

Some of his arguments:

It used to be called the department of war, and it had a better track record with regard to foreign conflict, under that name then it did under the DoD name.

Department of war is a more honest name, department of defense is a somewhat newspeak term, although "Department of Peace" would be worse.

It's harder to seek funding for "war", then it is to seek funding for "defense". If you ask someone, "Do you want to spend money on education or war?", you will get a different answer asking, "Do you want to spend money on education or defense?".

[0] Palmer Luckey talking to Mike Rowe about the name change: https://youtu.be/dejWbn_-gUQ?t=1007

[airstrike]

> It used to be called the department of war, and it had a better track record with regard to foreign conflict, under that name then it did under the DoD name.

The flaw in this logic is maddening

[jwkpiano1]

The problem with this argument is that the _original_ Department of War is now called the Department of the Army, which existed alongside the Department of the Navy. Besides, it’s a moot point unless Congress actually changes the name.

[abustamam]

> It's harder to seek funding for "war"

I'm confused. This seems like a bad change.

Regarding Luckey's other statements, I can almost assure you that the administration did not think as much about it as Luckey has. Insecure Pete just thought the title "Secretary of Defense" was too wussy so he wanted to be Secretary of War.

Also, I think people mainly have issue with the fact that Trump is just randomly and unilaterally renaming random stuff and demolishing buildings without congressional approval. If he had gone through the correct alleys then maybe people could ignore it. Maybe. We'd probably still have qualms about it, but at least we'd know that our representatives had a say.

[systoll]

> I'm confused. This seems like a bad change.

It’s a good change in that it discourages unwarranted funding. Bad for the DoD’s budget, good for the country.

It’s analogous to why `React.__SECRET_INTERNALS_DO_NOT_USE_OR_YOU_WILL_BE_FIRED` is a pretty good name.

(But even if it's a decent name in isolation, it isn't actually the name of the department, and using it is a tacit submission to the power of the executive over congress. So… bad overall.)

[abustamam]

Good point. Yeah it's an accurate description of the department; I'd want to rename a bunch of other departments to be more accurate too, since apparently names are arbitrary now!