Explosive new year? US military apologizes for tweet about dropping bombs

Explosive new year? US military apologizes for tweet about dropping bombs
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About a million people are expected Monday in New York’s Times Square where revelers since 1907 ring in the New Year watching a giant ball slide slowly down a pole. (AFP)
Explosive new year? US military apologizes for tweet about dropping bombs
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About a million people are expected Monday in New York’s Times Square, above, where revelers since 1907 ring in the New Year watching a giant ball slide slowly down a pole. (Getty Images/AFP)
Updated 01 January 2019
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Explosive new year? US military apologizes for tweet about dropping bombs

Explosive new year? US military apologizes for tweet about dropping bombs
  • ‘If ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger’
  • Twitter message was later deleted

WASHINGTON: US Strategic Command apologized Monday for a joke in “bad taste” after tweeting it was ready to drop something “much bigger” than the traditional Times Square crystal ball at New Year.
In a message posted, and later deleted, on Twitter, the military force that controls the US nuclear arsenal released a video in which B-2 bombers drop bombs, with the message: “If ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger.”
Amid the jaw-dropping and eye-raising on social media that followed, STRATCOM — whose slogan is “peace is our profession” — then tweeted 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,” it said.
A STRATCOM spokesman told NBC News the images on the video showed non-nuclear bombs.
About a million people are expected Monday in New York’s Times Square, where revelers since 1907 ring in the New Year watching a giant ball slide slowly down a pole.