President Trump is desperate for the world to view him as a “tough guy,” said in The Atlantic . That seems to be the motivation behind his executive order rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, its name from 1789 to 1947. “Defense is too defensive,” Trump explained. “We want to be offensive too.” It’s hard “to overstate the inanity of this move.” First, the order won’t change the department’s official name—that requires an act of Congress —but will allow “macho-obsessed” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use titles like “secretary of war” in official communications. Then there’s the fact that the Pentagon had solid reasons for sticking with the Department of Defense: After World War II, officials recognized that preserving the freedom of the U.S. and its all

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