No political commentary needed, I think: space force says it all, doesn’t it? (unless you’re reading this in the future, in which case this is what I’m talking about)

Of course he wants a space force. What child wouldn’t? Big strong men, flying around in space on rocket bikes, shooting… well, I suppose he’ll figure who they’d be shooting up there later.

You know they’re big strong men of course, because of that word force, which can be traced back to the Latin fortis, meaning strong or steadfast. It’s where we get words like fort, forte and fortified, all related to strength in some way or another. Like the word force. Force as a noun means strength, and to force someone to do something requires strength, either physical or otherwise.

And we use force to refer to an armed group, like referring to armies in general, or specific groups like a police force, or an Air Force or, well, a space force. To most of us the name seems appropriately ridiculous because of how simple and direct it is, in an almost naïvely childlike way. But if you’re the kind of person who keeps their vocabulary simple, then you probably think that having a space force and calling it a space forcce is a pretty presidential thing to do.