Opinion

Trump restored the Department of War. Now it’s up to Congress to finish the job

House and Senate Armed Services Committee both backed restoring name given under President George Washington

By Sean Parnell Fox News

Published October 26, 2026 5:00am EDT

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I led a platoon of infantrymen in the 10th Mountain Division in Bermel, a rugged district in Afghanistan’s Paktika province on the Pakistan border. Our mission was the one American infantry carried for generations: close with and destroy the enemy.

We protected the Afghan people by doing exactly that: waging war against the enemy who would have harmed them. Their safety was the result. War was the job.

Every soldier in my platoon knew it. In combat, the fog of war settles over everything. Plans break. Radios fail. Young leaders make life-or-death decisions with no time to ask for guidance. What carries them through is a mission so clear that no one has to wonder what it is.

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That is why the name matters. "Department of War" states the mission from the very top: our military exists to fight and win the nation’s wars.

President Donald Trump speaks with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth upon arrival at the U.S. Army War College........

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