January 24, 2022 | 11:17am ET

If there is one thing that can unite this fractured country, it is our utter revulsion at the US Army quoting Lana Del Rey to recruit new soldiers. Because whether you think that every cadet should be a John Rambo-in-waiting, or you’d rather gut the Army’s budget to the point where it’s holding bake sales, we can all agree that Lana should’ve been left out of this.

In a tweet on Saturday, January 22nd, the US Army’s official account wrote, “‘Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don’t fail forever.’ — Lana Del Rey.” The reaction was as swift as a drone missile strike and as ugly as the sight of chemtrails over the country club.

“This is an extremely low standard for the military of a great nation to aspire to,” wrote Republican political commentator Dinesh D’Souza. Right-wing talk show host Jason Rantz added, “Our Army is doomed if a Lana Del Rey lyric is supposed to bring in recruits.”

Advertisement
Related Video

On the other end of the political spectrum, songwriter Lucy Dacus said, “I would like to thank this post for convincing me to get a lobotomy.” And author and director Dylan Park suggested that LDR wouldn’t have approved of the message. “Lol years ago I was going to direct a LDR music video,” he recalled. “The theme was WWII to present-day military Americana. Like some Marilyn Monroe USO shit. The Army was going to finance it. Tanks, helicopters, the works. But Army wanted to use the video for recruiting and LDR said fuck that.”

Check out the original tweet, as well as a selection of reactions, below. Last week, Lana Del Rey unveiled “Watercolor Eyes” from Euphoria Season 2, which we named our Song of the Week. Last year, she dropped two albums, Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Bannisters, which helped her set the record for most No. 1 alternative albums.