Nothing lasts forever and no meme goes untarnished.

On Thursday morning, the U.S. Air Force jumped on the never-ending "Laurel or Yanny" meme and took it to a really dark place, proving memes and military action just don't mix.

The social media minds behind the U.S. Air Force Twitter account decided to employ the hotly-debated two names in a tweet bragging about fighter jets providing air support to repress a Taliban offensive.

Image: USAF/Twitter

By 1:30 p.m. the USAF had deleted and issued an apology.

We apologize for the earlier tweet regarding the A-10. It was made in poor taste and we are addressing it internally. It has since been removed. — U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) May 17, 2018

But it was a bit too late as the tweet had long since gone viral.

The link included in the now-deleted tweet was for a story about Air Force air support efforts to prevent Taliban forces from overtaking Farah city which... is a long way off from the light-hearted debate that ensued over "Laurel or Yanny."

Many on Twitter agreed.

Yikes guys...a little much maybe? — John M. Pipes (@jm_pipes) May 17, 2018

Haha! It's funny because a bunch of people are dead. — David Kleppinger (@DrKlep) May 17, 2018

well this was fun while it lasted — Tyler Huckabee (@TylerHuckabee) May 17, 2018

I hope the military didn't spend too much of its missing 21 trillion dollars on its social media campaign, cuz they'd be overpaying at minimum wage. — Jon P (@jp_in_nj) May 17, 2018

Read the room. — coreyspring (@coreyspring) May 17, 2018

Just to clarify, is this the Air Force glorifying the delivery of deadly force from the air in an intractable war? Can you confirm that no innocent civilians were killed? — Watsobo (@spacecitybase) May 17, 2018

Gross — exurb expert (@underscoredan) May 17, 2018

No, not even the social media masters of the armed forces are immune to the backlash of a jokey misfire.

Then again, maybe our own Chris Taylor was right all along: the memes are just here to divide us.

What a time to be alive.

UPDATE: May 17, 2018, 1:53 p.m. EDT Updated to replace deleted original tweet with a screenshot and add USAF apology.