Like Gitmo?
Don’t forget the secret torture prisons in Eastern Europe.
I finally figured out the only other place I’ve heard “homeland” used and now realize why it bothers me so much: “Homeland” was the term the South Africans applied to the black “reservations” where the indigenous peoples were placed, effectively depriving them of citizenship in South Africa. Once Mandela was elected, they were disestablished and fell out of the news, of course, but I am sure that that is where I developed a distaste for the word (and I still cannot think of any other use it has had).
My theory is that they wanted a name that didn’t suggest a redundancy with the “U.S. Department of Defense,” which would have been more likely with a name like “U.S. Department of Domestic Security.”
It’s funny, considering that “Department of Defense” is itself an intentionally misleading euphemism. It used to be the “Department of War,” which is much more accurate.