Comment by somenameforme

A bit of a tangent, but Secretary of Defense is the cutesy name. Something every single soldier and officer learns is that the entire department was previously called the Department of War. It was repackaged after WW2 as the Department of Defense when invading countries half-way around the world began being sold to the public as 'defense.'

Going back to the Department of War, and the Secretary of War, is probably a good thing overall. Not to incentivize or motivate war - nothing's changing at all, but to be more forthcoming about the purpose of the department. They're not defending anything and haven't for many decades - geography and nukes take care of that side of the equation, more or less, by themselves.