U.S. Army Quoting Lana Del Rey Leaves Conservatives Outraged: 'Is This a Joke?'
The U.S. Army has been ridiculed by conservatives after a tweet quoting singer Lana del Rey caused confusion.
On Saturday, the U.S. Army Twitter page posted a picture of a woman crawling under barbed wire with the hashtag #SoldierSaturday.
The picture was captioned: "'Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don't fail forever.'- Lana Del Rey."
The tweet was met with condemnation from some conservative commentators on social media, with many questioning why the U.S. Army decided to quote the "Video Games" hitmaker rather than someone with more of a background in the military or warfare.
"Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don’t fail forever." -Lana Del Rey
— U.S. Army (@USArmy) January 22, 2022
📸 by Markus Rauchenberger#SoldierSaturday pic.twitter.com/57Aa4TnT2R
"Is this a joke?," Ian Miles Cheong tweeted in response.
Is this a joke? https://t.co/Zm0zZIF0px
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 23, 2022
Conservative radio host Jason Rantz also tweeted: "Our Army is doomed if a Lana Del Rey lyric is supposed to bring in recruits."
Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra tweeted a quote from WW2 General George S. Patton as a comparison.
"'No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country,'-General Patton." he tweeted.
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” — General Patton https://t.co/yE6xFpeEHA
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 23, 2022
"The US army is now posting Lana Del Ray quotes. This is why Putin thinks we're a joke," U.S. House Republican candidate Desi Cuellar tweeted.
The US Army is now posting Lana Del Ray quotes.
— Desi Cuellar for Congress (NY-14) (@DesiJCuellar) January 24, 2022
This is why Putin thinks we’re a joke.
However, some social media users did not consider the Tweet an issue and insisted people needed to relax.
"This became a surprisingly controversial tweet. My hot take is this, Lana Del Rey is a great singer/songwriter and the US Army is a great army, and everybody should just calm down and enjoy their Sunday evening," psychology professor Geoffrey Miller tweeted.
This became a surprisingly controversial tweet.
— Geoffrey Miller 🔍 (@primalpoly) January 23, 2022
My hot take is this: Lana Del Rey is a great singer/songwriter, & the @USArmy is a great Army, & everybody should just calm down & enjoy their Sunday evening. https://t.co/4cUx4DcafR
Author Art Tavana also tweeted "Lana fans trolling the US Army" as he highlighted tweets made by the singer's fans making light of the situation and mocking the U.S. Army.
Lana fans trolling the US Army. pic.twitter.com/wFpz2hDfvb
— art tavana (@arttavana) January 24, 2022
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Army for comment.
Other social media comments suggested the U.S. Army is willing to attempt a variety of different strategies to gain new recruits.
Earlier this month, Newsweek reported on the U.S. Army's decision to increase the maximum enlistment bonus to $50,000 to recruits committing to six years of service.
This bonus has been implemented to bring in new recruits due to a reduction in membership for multiple reasons.
Major General Kevin Vereen highlighted that one of those reasons was the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down schools and preventing recruiters from having face-to-face contact with young men and women.
"We are still living the implications of 2020 and the onset of COVID, when the school systems basically shut down," he said.
"We lost a full class of young men and women that we didn't have contact with, face to face."
He added: "We're in a competitive market. How we incentivize is absolutely essential [...] that is something we know is important in trying to get somebody to come and join the military."
