By Steve Rodriguez
Students of history, politics and military affairs are familiar with the classic definitions of war formulated by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. Back in the 1800’s, Clausewitz defined war as both “a continuation of politics by other means” and “an act of violence aimed at compelling an opponent to fulfill one’s will.”
However, as done with other traditional concepts, President Donald Trump is attempting, while demonstrating great frustration with his inability to defeat Iran, to unravel the conventional understanding of war. Some Trump critics are brushing off these attempts at redefining and/or rebranding as nothing but the silly tantrums of a man-child. However, I contend the president’s efforts have some serious implications for certain American institutions.
While trying hard to divert attention from the unforeseen length of the Iranian War – one which was supposed to end after a week of bombing – Trump has previously labeled the war as a “little excursion”, and most recently “not a big thing” and “small potatoes.” In playing this game of semantics, we should expect nothing less from someone who referred to the January 6, 2021 insurrection as a “day of love.” Yet, we must remain aware these attempts to change the definition of war have unintended consequences.
First, if Trump has his way the patriotic organization Veterans of Foreign Wars may be required to change its name to something like Veterans of Foreign Wars and Small Potatoes. This organization, once able to brag about a membership peak of 2.1 million military veterans in 1992, has dwindled down to somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million today. A number of reasons account for this membership decline, however, a more cumbersome name like Veterans of Foreign Wars and Small Potatoes isn’t likely to help matters.
On the other hand, if the organization wants to attract a new wave of members, it cannot afford to automatically exclude the many current servicemembers participating, not in a war against Iran, but as we now understand, in “small potatoes.” These brave individuals deserve to be accommodated. Accordingly, the unusual name change seems likely.
Regarding the use of one of the other preferred Trumpian terms, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Little Excursions, sounds too much like a travel agency. And the term “not a big thing” has even less potential of fulfilling the expectations of Pentagon officials. They just spent lots of money on new signage and business cards as a result of the White House changing the name of the Department of Defense to the more macho sounding Department of War. Changing now to the Department of War and No Big Things will not only add more expense, but also do little to reflect the fierce warrior ethos that current Secretary of War Pete Hegseth demands.
Based on Trump’s desire to rebrand (not only wars, but also lakes, straits and gulfs), we can assume that if this current stalemate with Iran lasts much longer and extends into the fall election window, he just might come up with a less negative term to describe the current situation.
A couple weeks ago, Vice President J.D. Vance took a stab at coming up with a new term or two that could assist Trump in placing the Iranian war in America’s rear view mirror. In a recent interview he referred to “no active shooting” and “You’ll have to ask the Iranians” to describe the current and disappointing deadlock. We expect greater linguistic flair from Trump, so I am predicting the term “stalemate” will soon be replaced by something like “Lull Before Inevitable Victory” or “Testosterone Replenishment Period,” or “Awaiting Further Advice from Fox News Pundits” or, in the spirit of “small potatoes,” a tuber-related term like “Tater Tots.”
In any event, I am sure President Trump will not completely do away with the old fashioned term of war. After all, nomenclature like “small potatoes”, “not a big thing”, and “little excursion” does not do justice to our recent and glorious military experience in Venezuela – a victorious episode that lasted about two and a half hours. Now that was a war!
Steve Rodriguez is a retired Marine officer and a retired high school English teacher. He is a resident of Linda Vista.
