Mentioned this man in the comment section of yesterday’s post.
The video is intense– Rather than embed, I’ve opted to link to it.
This is an intensely personal form of protesting. It’s a sacrifice of one’s own life in the hopes of saving or protecting another. Aaron was just 25 yrs old.
‘My name is Aaron Bushnell,’ he told the camera, ‘I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide.
‘I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all.
‘This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.’
The video shows the flames spreading all over his body, engulfing his head as he continues to scream ‘Free Palestine’, his voice cracking in agony as the flames intensify. He managed to stand for almost a minute before falling to the ground.
A spokesperson for the US Air Force confirmed on Sunday that Bushnell is an active-duty airman.
4 replies on “Aaron Bushnell has died- Self Immolating Protest Against Genocide”
Hi Penny,
We have come to the point of insupportable trauma amongst those empathetic enough to grieve for Palestine. I did not watch the video because I can well imagine the horror, ( thanks for the warning ). I an old enough to remember Buddhist monks doing the same protesting the Vietnam war, this was an image that has stayed with me always. I will never understand the irrational act of suicide; it is beyond comprehension, but I know it often serves to radicalize combatants and increase the level of desperation of those committed to the cause. Let’s hope that, like happened in the Vietnam war, public revulsion forces the western leadership to actually stop the facilitation of genocide.
I watched it very briefly. And admittedly I’m torn about the incident.
Too young, probably idealistic still.
The act speaks to how he must have felt about this situation? Was he feeling complicit? Or responsible? As an American? As a serviceman?
The media is doing what they do best.. avoiding why this man did this. What he said prior to and during? He seemed clear of mind and focused.
I feel bad for his family, of course. Crushing.
And yes I do hope this public revulsion at the very clear western hand in the ongoing genocide, being perpetrated in our names is greatly increased and with it increased political pressure on those we allow to lead us.
He was too young, and in far too much angst. But somebody old like me, ready to take advantage of MAID when I can no longer take care of myself, could never have made the phenomenal statement he has made. I would have tried to stop him, of course, but we have to admit this is no time in which to grow up, with so few true, healthy examples to follow.
True enough Corrine, it is because he’s a young thoughtful man that his act will have an impact.
Still you wish he wouldn’t have felt so compelled to do this 🙁