\nAl Jazeera<\/p>\n
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United States Air Force member Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire to protest Israel’s war on Gaza [Screengrab]<\/h5>\n<\/figure>\n\nOn Sunday, February 25, 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force Aaron Bushnell<\/a> 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.<\/p>\nOver the past 143 days<\/a>, 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 \u201cno longer be complicit in genocide\u201d and that he is \u201cabout to engage in an extreme act of protest \u2013 but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers is not extreme at all\u201d.<\/p>\nTo 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<\/a> on Palestinian land in 1948. The Israeli military\u2019s use of skin-incinerating white phosphorus munitions in more recent years has no doubt contributed to the whole Palestinian \u201cexperience\u201d.<\/p>\nAfter pertinently observing that US complicity in the genocide of Palestinians is \u201cwhat our ruling class has decided will be normal\u201d, Bushnell plants himself directly in front of the Israeli embassy gate \u2013 in full US military fatigues \u2013 and proceeds to douse himself with flammable liquid. As he rapidly burns to death, he repeatedly shouts: \u201cFree Palestine\u201d, while security personnel order him to get \u201con the ground\u201d. One particularly helpful individual points a gun at the blaze.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of Bushnell\u2019s self-immolation, the New York Times announced: \u201cMan Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say\u201d \u2013 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: \u201cOctogenarian Detroit Woman<\/a> Dies After Setting Herself on Fire, Police Say \u2013 An Event Having Nothing Potentially To Do With Said Woman\u2019s Opposition To The Vietnam War Or Anything Like That\u201d.<\/p>\nSpeaking of Vietnam War-related self-immolations, recall renowned US historian and journalist David Halberstam\u2019s account of the 1963 demise in Saigon, South Vietnam, of the Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc: \u201cFlames 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\u2026 I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered even to think\u201d.<\/p>\n
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 \u201ccompared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine\u201d, where people know all too well how quickly human beings burn.<\/p>\n
In Bushnell\u2019s case, the US political-media establishment appears to be doing its best to not only decontextualise but also posthumously discredit him. Time Magazine\u2019s write-up<\/a>, for example, admonishes that the US \u201cDefence Department policy states that service members on active duty should \u2018not engage in partisan political activity\u2019\u201d \u2013 as though actively abetting a genocide weren\u2019t politically \u201cpartisan\u201d.<\/p>\nFurthermore, the magazine specifies, US military regulations \u201cprohibit wearing the uniform during \u2018unofficial public speeches, interviews\u2019\u201d, and other activities.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Bushnell\u2019s ashes can be tried in military court.<\/p>\n
At the bottom of the Time article, readers are charitably given the following instructions: \u201cIf you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988\u201d \u2013 which naturally implies that Bushnell was simply the victim of a \u201cmental-health crisis\u201d rather than someone making a most cogent and defiant political point in response to an extremely mentally disturbing political reality.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, anyone who is not experiencing a serious \u201cmental-health crisis\u201d over the genocide going down in Gaza with full US backing can be safely filed under the category of psychologically disturbed.<\/p>\n
Of course, the US also perpetrated its very own genocide<\/a> against Native Americans \u2013 another bloody phenomenon that has not been deemed worthy of diagnosis as a severe collective mental disturbance or anything of the sort. As per the official narrative, if you think it\u2019s crazy for the US or its Israeli partner in crime to commit genocide, you\u2019re the crazy one.<\/p>\nComing from a family of US Air Force veterans myself \u2013 both of my grandfathers participated in the carnage in Vietnam \u2013 I have personally witnessed the psychological fallout that can attend service as empire\u2019s executioners. Aaron Bushnell was meant to be a cog in the killing machine, but his principles cost him his life.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, February 25, 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force Aaron Bushnell<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Over the past 143 days<\/a>, 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 \u201cno longer be complicit in genocide\u201d and that he is \u201cabout to engage in an extreme act of protest \u2013 but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers is not extreme at all\u201d.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> on Palestinian land in 1948. The Israeli military\u2019s use of skin-incinerating white phosphorus munitions in more recent years has no doubt contributed to the whole Palestinian \u201cexperience\u201d.<\/p>\n After pertinently observing that US complicity in the genocide of Palestinians is \u201cwhat our ruling class has decided will be normal\u201d, Bushnell plants himself directly in front of the Israeli embassy gate \u2013 in full US military fatigues \u2013 and proceeds to douse himself with flammable liquid. As he rapidly burns to death, he repeatedly shouts: \u201cFree Palestine\u201d, while security personnel order him to get \u201con the ground\u201d. One particularly helpful individual points a gun at the blaze.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of Bushnell\u2019s self-immolation, the New York Times announced: \u201cMan Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say\u201d \u2013 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: \u201cOctogenarian Detroit Woman<\/a> Dies After Setting Herself on Fire, Police Say \u2013 An Event Having Nothing Potentially To Do With Said Woman\u2019s Opposition To The Vietnam War Or Anything Like That\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking of Vietnam War-related self-immolations, recall renowned US historian and journalist David Halberstam\u2019s account of the 1963 demise in Saigon, South Vietnam, of the Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc: \u201cFlames 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\u2026 I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered even to think\u201d.<\/p>\n 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 \u201ccompared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine\u201d, where people know all too well how quickly human beings burn.<\/p>\n In Bushnell\u2019s case, the US political-media establishment appears to be doing its best to not only decontextualise but also posthumously discredit him. Time Magazine\u2019s write-up<\/a>, for example, admonishes that the US \u201cDefence Department policy states that service members on active duty should \u2018not engage in partisan political activity\u2019\u201d \u2013 as though actively abetting a genocide weren\u2019t politically \u201cpartisan\u201d.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the magazine specifies, US military regulations \u201cprohibit wearing the uniform during \u2018unofficial public speeches, interviews\u2019\u201d, and other activities.<\/p>\n Perhaps Bushnell\u2019s ashes can be tried in military court.<\/p>\n At the bottom of the Time article, readers are charitably given the following instructions: \u201cIf you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988\u201d \u2013 which naturally implies that Bushnell was simply the victim of a \u201cmental-health crisis\u201d rather than someone making a most cogent and defiant political point in response to an extremely mentally disturbing political reality.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, anyone who is not experiencing a serious \u201cmental-health crisis\u201d over the genocide going down in Gaza with full US backing can be safely filed under the category of psychologically disturbed.<\/p>\n Of course, the US also perpetrated its very own genocide<\/a> against Native Americans \u2013 another bloody phenomenon that has not been deemed worthy of diagnosis as a severe collective mental disturbance or anything of the sort. As per the official narrative, if you think it\u2019s crazy for the US or its Israeli partner in crime to commit genocide, you\u2019re the crazy one.<\/p>\n Coming from a family of US Air Force veterans myself \u2013 both of my grandfathers participated in the carnage in Vietnam \u2013 I have personally witnessed the psychological fallout that can attend service as empire\u2019s executioners. Aaron Bushnell was meant to be a cog in the killing machine, but his principles cost him his life.<\/p>\n