War is the event. Defence and offence are the actions. Starting a war implies taking offensive actions while the target will undertake defensive actions. The target will then undertake offensive actions against the other country which will undertake defensive actions in turn. Offence and defence are both tasked to the department handling all things military.
Knowing this it is rather hypocritical to call the department which is tasked with undertaking offensive actions the 'Department of Defen[cs]e'. It actually seems to come straight out of 1984 where the propaganda department is called the Ministry of Truth. Better call it for what it is - and what it used to be called - which is the Department of War.
It is absolutely true that there are people out in the world who would love it if we had no defense. You can argue (validly) that we have made a lot of poor choices, but it’s definitely defense.
mother instead of 'gestating person' or 'birthing person'
homeless instead of 'unhoused person'
criminal instead of 'justice-involved person'
paedophile instead of 'minor-attracted person'
prostitute instead of 'sex worker'
...and whatever other neologisms happen to be pushed by activists, politicos and the media. If there is a good existing term which is replaced for no valid reason I use the existing term. If there is a good reason to replace it - which is rare - I use the new term.
If they insist I do continue the conversation using the correct - existing - terms. The other side often shows little desire to continue the conversation which I find odd given that they generally wouldn't have had any problems using those terms a decade ago.
Knowing this it is rather hypocritical to call the department which is tasked with undertaking offensive actions the 'Department of Defen[cs]e'. It actually seems to come straight out of 1984 where the propaganda department is called the Ministry of Truth. Better call it for what it is - and what it used to be called - which is the Department of War.