Change the name of the US Department of Defense to the “war” is a bad idea

A report by “National Interest” magazine criticized the change of the name of the US Defense Ministry “the Pentagon” to the Ministry of War, considering that it is a bad idea because it may seem “very aggressive” in the eyes of other countries.

This came after US President Donald Trump signed, last week, an executive order to change the name of the ministry, in a step that restores a name that the ministry carried last time in the 1940s.

The ministry will use the new name at the beginning “a secondary title”, while the US administration seeks to obtain the approval of Congress to make this change always.

However, it is unlikely that many US allies will back down from cooperating with it because of the change of name, and instead, America’s opponents and enemies will be afraid of its capabilities and intentions.

message

According to the report of the American magazine, the argument lies against changing the name in reality in the name of the name to American soldiers, men and women, as well as to the American public, as the “Ministry of War” is a misleading name for the American army’s position in today’s world.

When Trump indicated that the United States has suffered in the battlefield since the reorganization of the Ministry of War to become the Ministry of Defense in 1949. The change of the name did not directly affect the American military performance in the following decades, but a valid note remains: the Ministry of War and Farm, the United States fought a war against Great Britain that ended in a tie in the 1812 war, then triumphed in the Mexican American war, the civil war, the Spanish -American war, and the American -American war, And the First World War, and the Second World War.

The results of the United States were more chaotic in the Philippines at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in some internal conflicts with Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, but it was generally triumphed in it.

Ethical

Without commenting on the moral side, the United States, as well as its militias, defeated the tribes of the indigenous Americans in most of the hundreds of battles that they fought against them between independence and 1890, but since 1945, the United States has fought a war against North Korea and China that ended in a draw, while it lost in Vietnam and Afghanistan, while the result of the Iraq war relies on the definition of one’s US war.

However, the Ministry of Defense cannot be held responsible for the decline in the American fighting spirit. The “Victory of the Enemy” was the “Pentagon” strategy in Korea or Vietnam, and the United States used excessive fire force in vain in both cases. The slogans in Vietnam were “preventive artillery shelling”, “research and destruction” operations, and of course “a comprehensive bombardment”.

Difficulty tasks

If there has been a problem since 1949, it is the difficulty of the tasks that the United States has assigned to its armed forces, and these tasks included complex counter -rebellions, state building operations, and in some cases political -military strategies. It should not be questioned by the ability of American soldiers to fight.

Reflection in the period since 1949 must also push us to remember the main reason for not re -name the Ministry of Defense, and as the researcher Bernard Brody has briefly wrote at the “dawn of the nuclear era”: “The main goal of our military establishment was to win wars. From now on, its main goal should be to avoid it. ”

There is no doubt that the American army has fought many conflicts since Brody wrote this, yet regarding the main challenge of the cold war – confronting the Soviet Union – the army avoided the war and finally won without direct fighting with the opponent.

Real capacity

In our time, which is witnessing the renewal of competition between the nuclear armed forces, the army must respond again to the Broody slogan. Effective deterrence requires a real combat capacity, and the army must continue training strongly in anticipation of any possible war. The daily activities of the armed forces are extremely important, including training, deterring enemies, reassuring allies, conducting joint exercises, and carrying out various limited tasks.

The success of the military policy will be measured after a decade or two decades from now, as it continues to do these matters, thus avoiding the war.

The name of the “Ministry of Defense” may not be perfect, however, in the face of the alternative, this name is much better than what the United States should expect from its armed forces. About National Interest

• Trump’s decision brought back to the ministry a name that it had last in the 1940s.

• The ministry will use the new name at the beginning “a secondary title”, while the US administration seeks to obtain the approval of Congress to make it always.