"Donald Trump has no complexes. Someone capable of claiming he wouldn't lose votes if he committed a murder on Fifth Avenue wasn't going to be deterred by a euphemistic question. That's why, on September 5, he announced his intention to rename his Department of Defense the Department of War. Well, the Department of Defense hadn't been particularly peaceful either. Under that name (which in 1949 replaced the National Military Establishment), the United States had already launched several invasions."
"Many U.S. wars have not been defensive but offensive actions, because its territory had not suffered a previous military aggression from which it had to protect itself (although there would be room to argue otherwise in the case of Afghanistan, given the previous attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon). Thus, throughout its history, the Department of Defense has largely functioned as a department of offense. Changing its name now will not alter the essence of its dangers. However, it may well increase them."
A proposal to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War signals an embrace of explicit militarism. The Department of Defense has a history of launching offensive interventions rather than only defending U.S. territory, including Grenada, Panama (where a photographer was killed), the Gulf War, the Iraq occupation (in which a Spanish cameraman was killed), Vietnam, and Afghanistan. Many U.S. conflicts lacked prior territorial aggression against the United States. A mere name change will not remove the department's inherent dangers and may heighten them. The term war carries powerful historical and linguistic resonances across languages.
Read at english.elpais.com
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