Air Force: Martin Luther King Jr. Would Be Proud Of All These Awesome Nuclear Bombs

The Air Force released a bizarre statement a few days ago marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

1/21/2013 - BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La.  – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 83rd birthday was Jan. 15. . . His courageous crusade for equality was first nationally recognized on Jan. 20, 1986, when President Reagan established the third Monday in January as an official federal government holiday.

Our country, our Air Force and Air Force Global Strike Command can learn much from Dr. King’s drive for America to be a nation of equals. . . During his “I Have a Dream” speech given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963, King told a gathering of more than 200,000 Americans, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.'”

Dr. King completed his moving presentation with an emphasis on the freedom that equality brings, “…from every mountainside, let freedom ring. . . And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men, white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!”

(…)
Dr. King would be proud to see our Global Strike team – comprised of Airmen, civilians and contractors from every race, creed, background and religion – standing side-by-side ensuring the most powerful weapons in the U.S. arsenal remain the credible bedrock of our national defense. . . Our team must overlook our differences to ensure perfection as we maintain and operate our weapon systems. . . Maintaining our commitment to our Global Strike team, our families and our nation is a fitting tribute to Dr. King as we celebrate his legacy.

I get what they’re trying to do here. They’re trying to point out the racial and ethnic diversity of the Global Strike team. But, did the person who wrote this press release forget that Dr. King led a non-violent movement, and that he was emphatically anti-war? This just strikes me as dumb.

FILED UNDER: Religion, US Politics, ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. anjin-san says:

    As a nation, do we need to have instruments of mass death? Sadly, yes. Do we need to glorify them? No.

  2. Andy says:

    Definitely bizarre, but just as a point of clarification, this was written by a retired USAF Colonel.

  3. Franklin says:

    Geez, why doesn’t he just go on and explain how MLK would have celebrated Gun Appreciation Day as well.

  4. de stijl says:

    I have a dream that my four little ICBMs will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the half-life of their fallout.

  5. Tim says:

    @de stijl

    If it was up to me, you’d win the internet today for that last post. I was laughing so loudly I woke my wife.

  6. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Tim:

    If it was up to me, you’d win the internet today for that last post. I was laughing so loudly I woke my wife.

    Not just the day, but the whole damn week!