US airman, Larry Hebert, is on a hunger strike to protest Israel's starvation of Gaza & US complicity.
Hebert said he was deeply touched when Aaron Bushnell took his own life for Gaza & knew he had to raise his voice against US supplying Israel bombs & rockets to commit genocide in Gaza.
"Active-duty members are afraid to speak out," he said. "I hope that my example & that of others, like Aaron, can change that.”
"And yet the mere existence of this genocide on the heels of last century’s most famous Holocaust shows us that even time cannot mete out this blandly equalizing consolation if we don’t learn the correct lessons from history."
"A Secret Service officer approached the scene, aimed a gun at Bushnell off-camera, and ordered him to "get on the ground" multiple times while a police officer yelled "I don't need guns, I need fire extinguishers!"
I don't know about you, but I'm becoming increasingly furious at the way the media is by and large covering the Aaron Bushnell story. Which isn't to say that this purposely deceptive coverage wasn't predictable, but it is very apparent that "both sides" of our media environment have a vested interest in refusing to talk about the actually important subject of why an active-duty US Airman, and a committed anarchist like Aaron, would self-immolate in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. The right wing of the media complex is of course seeking to define him as a dangerous terrorist with "mental health problems" but the mainstream "liberal" media isn't really doing much better, seeking to focus on why Bushnell's sacrifice and his goals in doing so simply must not be discussed because it may inspire copycat self-immolation attempts and self-harm - which is pretty rich from people blithely ignoring the mass murder of Palestinian children under the guise of "a war" or "counter-terrorism."
Crucially, neither "side" of this discussion has any interest in talking about the genocide in Gaza, Aaron's act of extreme protest, or even the man's last words - he released a statement before travelling to the embassy, and astonishingly, I haven't seen that reproduced in most (but not all, curiously CNN was good about this for once) places that have covered the story, so I'll share it here:
“My name is Aaron Bushnell. I am an active-duty member of the US Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m 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.”
Additionally, I'd like to share an article from It's Going Down, that I do think humanely addresses most facets of the story, including crucially the very real genocide being undertaken by the government of Israel in Gaza, and does what Aaron was trying to accomplish here justice, without drifting into idealization of what Bushnell himself called "an extreme act of protest."
To be quite honest with you, I don't really care how you feel about what Aaron did, but I continue to believe that the important part of this story is why he did it. When an otherwise normal person burns himself to death to protest a genocide, the bombing of hospitals, the mass murder of children, I think we as a society at least have a duty to hear him out. A lot of folks are cowering behind "reasonable sensibilities" to ignore the reality of what Aaron saw, and his correct declaration that genocide and murder, are indeed "what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” In our silence, we then become complicit with this cowering and deception, and I want no real part of that.
I see Aaron's sacrifice, I know the pain and frustration that lead him to make it and take action in this way, and I will not forget Bushnell's words and reasons. I hope you won't either.
In German media every tiny bit of information about events in the US - Super Bowl, Taylor Swift, wildfire in California, the latest school shooting - gets mentioned in the news far more often than any similar happening in other countries. You just can't flee into attention deficit being overpowered by news from the US especially the sort of celebrity and society excitement which perform on tabloid level.
But three days after #AaronBushnell chose to give his life for the ultimate act of protest I'm waiting in vain for any news outlet of greater reach and importance to cover this story not only, if at all as a two-sentence newslet although aside from its political implications it has all you need to make up headlines.
The absence of any serious reporting about his tribute to the plight of #Palestinians in #Gaza and protest against the complicity of his country and military in this war tells everything about the ideological and military support Israel gets from Germany in carrying out this #genocide.
To raise the question what could have been his motives for public self immolation seems to be informally verboten. It could contribute to the growing doubt whether German complicity might not be so ethically pure and peace loving as it's sold.
So Rest In Power, Aaron Bushnell, there are still some people who admire your courage and empathy even in the dark night of consciously contributing to this bloodshed out of sheer opportunism.
"American media won’t question the mental health of those who gleefully blow up neighborhoods full of children and hunt, humiliate, torture and kill for sport as we see with the IDF. That isn’t viewed through a lens of dysfunction; but protesting it by self-immolation? Of course."
Almost all mainstream media treated Aaron Bushnell as a mental health crisis, just another random suicide, and ignored everything he said.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people are 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. Free Palestine!” – #AaronBushnell, last words #FreePalestine#CeasefireNow
Art by @adhityazul (Insta).
"Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now." – #AaronBushnell, last post
Art by @krime_1 (Insta). #FreePalestine#CeasefireNow#DefundThePolice
On a personal note; my grandfather died with third and fourth degree burns over 90% of his body after 13 hours. The pain he lived through for those 13 hours had to feel like a lifetime.
The pain that #AaronBushnell went through to try to stop the slaughter, the genocide, the greed of corporations and their whores in office was truly a sacrifice greater than I have ever seen in my life
Apparently some people are having trouble finding the Aaron Bushnell self-immolation video. After checking that it's not illegal to distribute in Germany, I've uploaded a copy.
On February 25, we received an email from a person who signed himself Aaron Bushnell, announcing that he was going to engage in an act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Shortly afterwards, Aaron set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.
All afternoon, while other journalists were breaking the news, we discussed how we should speak about this. Some subjects are too complex to address in a hasty social media post.
Here, we share some of our thoughts about tragedy, urgency, and sacrifice.
zhangfeng @zhangfe59673651
·
1m
Turn my mutilated body into fire，Aaron Bushnell，The last American, a true democracy fighter, a great internationalist, a whistleblower of American imperialism against human atrocities, liberating Palestine and opposing Israeli atrocities!#FreePalestine#AaronBushnell#Palestine