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US. The Strategic Command is responsible for controlling the country's nuclear operations, but admits that it missed the target with a New Year's tweet comparing the fall of the balloon to a B-2 bomber dropping weapons.
"The TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball … if we ever need it, we are # ready to drop something much, much bigger," reads the tweet now removed from Stratcom's official account.
According to press reports, a bomber would fly over the air and release two conventional weapons, not nuclear, in a playful video accompanied by rhythmic music. "Stealth", "Ready" and "Lethal" flash on the screen in all capital letters. The video ends with an explosion in a huge fireball.
The reaction is swift, and on Monday morning, the unified command of four branches of the army had suppressed the tweet by issuing a mea culpa.
Our previous NYE tweet was in bad taste and does not reflect our values. We apologize. We are dedicated to the security of America and its allies.
– United States Strategic Command (@US_Stratcom) December 31, 2018
"Our previous tweet from NYE was in bad taste and does not reflect our values," reads. "We apologize, we are dedicated to the security of America and its allies."
A spokeswoman told the New York Times that the video had been re-released this year and that she "was part of our Year in Review series intended to present our leadership priorities: strategic deterrence, reaction decisive and force in combat ".
But during the hours when the tweet was posted, Twitter users reacted with confusion and contempt, some with alarm, calling his message disgusting grotesque and terrifying .
Former Director of the Department of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub Jr., a sharp critic of the Trump administration who resigned in July 2017, published a screenshot of the original tweet, asking "What kind of maniac are running this country?"
But other Twitter users have defended the message, claiming that it was funny that & # 39; 39, he was giving assurances of security and there was no need ] to excuse himself.
The reconsidered recall of US military power appeared as tensions with North Korea resurfaced.
In his New Year's speech, Chief Kim Jong Un spoke about the nuclear confrontation, saying he was willing to meet with President Trump, but that Pyongyang would be forced to follow a different path if the United States "Continues to break its promises and to deceive the patience of our people by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushing forward with sanctions and pressures," according to a translation of the Associated Press.
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