| zeldaring said: Aaron Bushnell rip that was so sad, the genocide effected him on another level he was too good for this world. |
Tragically sad people are driven to commit suicide in order to be heard.
Hopefully his death, as well as all the many other thousands of deaths are not in vain.
‘His last words: Free Palestine’ – vigil held for Aaron Bushnell
People leave notes and flowers during a vigil for US Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell who self-immolated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, on Sunday to protest the war in Gaza
Aaron Bushnell, 25, wanted the world to know that he did not support the US’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I will not be complicit in genocide”, he said, as he set himself on fire in a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, sustaining injuries that later claimed his life. He livestreamed his protest on Twitch where viewers say his last words were, “Free Palestine”.
Bushnell described himself on Linkedin as an “aspiring software engineer” from San Antonio, Texas. He served in the US Air Force from May 2020 until his death. Bushnell was described by a friend as “the kindest, gentlest, silliest little kid in the Air Force”, according to a post from Talia Jane, the reporter who first shared his name and details of his protest online.
A Pentagon spokesperson has described Bushnell’s death as a “tragic event” but reaffirmed that US support for Israel is “ironclad”.
At 12:58 PM @dcfireems responded to call for person on fire outside the Israeli Embassy. Arrived to find fire extinguished by members of @SecretService Uniformed Division. 1 adult male transported critical life threatening injuries to an area hospital. #DCBravest
— DC Fire and EMS Department (DCFD) (@dcfireems) February 25, 2024
And also tragically sad US media still can't even say anything about the 'war', just goes on painting him as an extremist
a Secret Service agent states that they “received a distress call regarding an individual exhibiting signs of mental distress outside the Israeli embassy.”
Bushnell emailed several left-leaning websites alerting them to his “highly disturbing” final act [including the BBC...]
Very different here
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/2/26/suicide-vs-genocide-rest-in-power-aaron-bushnell
On Sunday, February 25, 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in the US capital of Washington, DC, in a one-airman revolt against the US-backed slaughter currently being perpetrated by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past 143 days, Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave. In video footage recorded prior to and during his self-immolation, Bushnell states that he will “no longer be complicit in genocide” and that he is “about to engage in an extreme act of protest – but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers is not extreme at all”.
To be sure, Palestinians have long been accustomed to, well, burning to death at the hands of Israeli weaponry, ever since the state of Israel undertook to lethally invent itself on Palestinian land in 1948. The Israeli military’s use of skin-incinerating white phosphorus munitions in more recent years has no doubt contributed to the whole Palestinian “experience”.
After pertinently observing that US complicity in the genocide of Palestinians is “what our ruling class has decided will be normal”, Bushnell plants himself directly in front of the Israeli embassy gate – in full US military fatigues – and proceeds to douse himself with flammable liquid. As he rapidly burns to death, he repeatedly shouts: “Free Palestine”, while security personnel order him to get “on the ground”. One particularly helpful individual points a gun at the blaze.
In the aftermath of Bushnell’s self-immolation, the New York Times announced: “Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say” – a rather strong contender, perhaps, for the most diluted and decontextualised headline ever. One wonders what folks would have said in 1965 had the US newspaper of record run headlines like: “Octogenarian Detroit Woman Dies After Setting Herself on Fire, Police Say – An Event Having Nothing Potentially To Do With Said Woman’s Opposition To The Vietnam War Or Anything Like That”.
Speaking of Vietnam War-related self-immolations, recall renowned US historian and journalist David Halberstam’s account of the 1963 demise in Saigon, South Vietnam, of the Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc: “Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly… I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered even to think”.
And while such an intense and passionate form of suicide is no doubt bewildering to many, genocide should be all the more appalling; as Bushnell himself said, self-immolation is nothing “compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine”, where people know all too well how quickly human beings burn.
In Bushnell’s case, the US political-media establishment appears to be doing its best to not only decontextualise but also posthumously discredit him. Time Magazine’s write-up, for example, admonishes that the US “Defence Department policy states that service members on active duty should ‘not engage in partisan political activity’” – as though actively abetting a genocide weren’t politically “partisan”.
Furthermore, the magazine specifies, US military regulations “prohibit wearing the uniform during ‘unofficial public speeches, interviews’”, and other activities.
Perhaps Bushnell’s ashes can be tried in military court.
