A tweet by a Defense Department agency that seemed to be about dropping bombs simultaneously sparked outrage and applause for the military on New Year’s Eve.
A CNN panel on “The Situation Room” Monday discussed the tweet by U.S. Strategic Command, which was soon deleted, and condemned it as something that “defies belief.”
In its New Year’s Eve message, Strategic Command appeared to be joking about the strength of the American military in a tweet referring to the Times Square celebration in New York City at midnight with the annual ball drop.
“If ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,” the account tweeted.
Encouraging viewers to “watch to the end!” the tweet was accompanied by a video of stealth jets dropping two bombs, followed by explosions – all while the words “stealth, ready, and lethal” flashed across the screen.
Looks like the US Strategic Command has deleted the “we are ready to drop something much bigger” tweet but here are some screenshots pic.twitter.com/bXKLMcZTDF
— (((Orchid))) (@OrchidNYC) December 31, 2018
Some Twitter users seemed shocked by the tweet.
Maybe a little more “Happy New Year!” and a little less “Watch the our powerful bombs our powerful bombs of mass destruction.”
— Dani Bostick (@danibostick) December 31, 2018
Fire the terrorist who sent out that tweet! We don’t need anymore lunatics in this [email protected] @NancyPelosi this needs to be investigated & they need to be held accountable for terrorizing American ppl in NYE! Did Saudis tell them to tweet this?! NYC never forgot 9/11!!
— Nancy Hernandez (@nanelvisfan) January 1, 2019
A short time later, Strategic Command deleted the tweet and offered an apology.
Our previous NYE tweet was in poor taste & does not reflect our values. We apologize. We are dedicated to the security of America & allies.
— US Strategic Command (@US_Stratcom) December 31, 2018
“This post, which has since been deleted, was part of our Year in Review series meant to feature our command priorities: strategic deterrence, decisive response and combat-ready force. It was a repost from earlier in the year, dropping a pair of conventional Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) at a test range in the United States,” a spokesman told NBC News.
A CNN panel weighed in later on Monday, with Evan Perez declaring, “this sums up 2018 so perfectly.”
National security analyst Phil Mudd was much more fired up, and interjected with his “serious perspective.”
“Before anybody tries to make light of this, let me offer a serious perspective on this,” he said. “These decisions about whether to put American forces at risk, and whether to kill somebody overseas, involve potentially the death of a child.”
“Maybe don’t joke about it,” he added. “That could be a new year’s resolution.”
“It’s the casual nature of something that’s so serious. And it isn’t funny, Phil, you’re right, but it’s almost — it defies belief,” CNN anchor Brianna Keilar said.
The panel speculated on who decided to send out the tweet, stopping just barely shy of blaming President Donald Trump personally.
“It is something that this strategic command should not be sending out messages so casually, joking about bombs,” Perez said.
“Do you think in another administration,” Keilar asked, “that would be sent out or do you think it is taking the lead from the president?”
“You know, you shouldn’t have to tell those folks, think before you tweet,” the Daily Beast’s Jackie Kucinich replied.
“But, you know, the president doesn’t follow that and clearly, clearly someone, someone, some adult decided that maybe it wasn’t good to put something that — forgive the pun — incendiary on the Internet, with allies, adversaries on New Year’s Eve looking on.”
It’s like Donald Trump somehow got a hold of this twitter account, except there aren’t enough errors, and not enough randomly capitalized words.
— Bret Lambert (@BretLambert3) January 1, 2019
“You know, I’m still trying to get over the Strategic Air Command tweeting at all,” joked senior editor of The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein.
But despite all the chatter and the left’s outrage, many Twitter users turned the debate, slamming the snowflakes and defending America’s military.
Ignore these politically correct idiots. I’m so sick of everybody having to walk on eggshells, because you might “hurt someone’s feelings”. Just get over it. I feel better, knowing we have a military willing to do the difficult tasks, so we are safe.
— Will Harvey (@willharvey1987) January 1, 2019
Do you honestly believe that people with launch codes are also responsible for maintaining their twitter account?
— Matthew Gerber (@ShmerberParadox) January 1, 2019
You should apologize for apologizing. We count on you to drop the ball whenever and wherever it counts. You don’t have to pretend otherwise.
— JD (@jdmays) January 1, 2019
Oh so it was just military humor and the civilians got upset? Gotcha.
— Melanie Young (@melaniedyoung1) January 1, 2019
I saw the tweet and this liberal loved it.
— Mrs.Gigz (@mrsgigz) January 1, 2019
Disturbing? That’s reality, and thank God for it. FFS, do you know how many times over the US would be attacked if it wasn’t for having the worlds greatest and strongest military. Peace through Strength. Thank you @US_Stratcom. You’ve got my back and I’ve got yours.
— ❌#TheRedPill ✌?♥️☀️??❌ (@JulieKinMI) January 1, 2019
The protection of the US and it’s allies depends on the capabilities you stated. If people are freaking out over that, wait until they hear what @US_Stratcom is really capable of. Just don’t tweet it. We want the enemy to be surprised! ?
— Mark Casadei ? (@markliterally) January 1, 2019
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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