Update 2/27, 0820 EST: Disgracefully, this was the headline of a story at the Washington Post on Bushnell: "Airman who set self on fire grew up on religious compound, had anarchist past." It appears Bushnell grew up in a Christian society in Orleans on Cape Cod, that he joined the Air Force in 2020, served as a cyber defense ops specialist in Texas, and was interested in U.S. history, socialism, and anarchism. The Washington Post article is at pains to portray him as being raised by a weird, possibly abusive, Christian cult while putting a heavy stress on his interest in anarchism. He also liked cats and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, so you just know he was a misfit. In all seriousness, Bushnell seems to me to have been an unusually principled and sensitive man who acted out of strong moral conviction.
Bushnell could not have stated his motives more clearly. It is absolutely pathetic that any news organization could label his horrific end as an "apparent protest." I'm left pondering the New Testament statement, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." May Bushnell's death not be in vain.
Tweet just sent to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan after watching the video in the link Roger posted.
@JakeSullivan46
You and the President are responsible for the Death of US Serviceman Aaron Bushnellls self immolation in protest of the Israeli genocide in Gaza as you blame Putin for the death of Navalny. The SOB President has the Power and leverage to stop the genocide. Do it
Wasn't there a self-immolation outside the Pentagon office of Robert McNamara during the Vietnam War? I understand that it affected McNamara greatly. Significantly, because it is so unusual among the powerful, McNamara felt remorse for his participation in the Vietnam War.
Tolstoy wrote a book, "The Kingdom of God is Within You" in which he made the case that there could be no war without the willing participation of individuals as soldiers. War could be stopped if no one could be found to fight, but history has shown us that young men, the age of Bushnell or younger, are eager to fight and with no understanding of the context of the war being fought. This is only more proof that we are emotionally driven creatures, with reason tagging along far behind usually employed to rationalize emotion.
What inspires awe in what Bushnell did is his acceptance of responsibility. Here is this low ranking member off the armed forces (and as such a representative of government) taking his life to protest what he cannot stop and did not start, while the Commander in Chief who has had the power to stop the carnage, and repeatedly has refused to do so mouths empty words. He is an empty suit.
One man with no power, takes responsibility by sacrificing his life.
One man, all powerful, refuses his responsibility and permits unending horror by his inaction while expecting our votes to keep him in power.
We know of another individual who we are told sacrificed his life not just for a group, but for all mankind and the powerful story still resonates. Yet Bushnell's case is remarkable for being different from that of Jesus. Jesus was not complicit with something wrong, but simply "went around doing good" and went to his death an innocent. Bushnell was complicit as part of an agency, the US government, undeniably doing wrong, and took it upon himself to divorce himself from it in the most powerful way possible.
I was never in the military and I certainly would not salute Joe Biden, but I readily salute Aaron Bushnell, an individual who fully felt his responsibility. That is something that the rest of us keep out of mind because we would find it unbearable. So did he, but he acted on it.
Thank you for covering this sad event, Bill. The Aaron Bushnell story gets conveniently buried by corporate news (CNN, ABC, FOXNEWS) unless I intentionally search for the article. I learned about it from Caitlin Johnstone's and your writing in Substack. This is the kind of action - as uncomfortable as it is to watch - that people need to acknowledge in order to shake themselves out of the world of constant distraction that our culture places us in. The world of "but - Trump" and "blue no matter who". The world that wants us to "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain". Anything to divert people's attention from the US Support for a horror show genocide by Israel and instead to give people pause to ask, why does the US have over 1000 bases around the globe? And why does a police force respond with guns drawn and drop-to-the-ground commands during such a situation rather than trying to rescue Mr. Bushnell? Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell. You tried.
WHEN I FIRST READ THIS ORWELL QUOTE I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT. TODAY I DO, AND THAT FRIGHTENS ME Is Truth Being Destroyed By Propaganda? by Jon Miltimore / The Take 022824
George Orwell (1903-1950) once wrote that "history stopped" in 1936.
Truth after that point was drowned out by state propaganda. It was a phenomenon that clearly terrified him.
"I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed.
“I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened.
“I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”
When I first read this quote, which comes from his 1943 essay “Looking back on the Spanish War,” I didn't have any idea what Orwell was talking about.
Today, I understand exactly what he was talking about. And that terrifies me.
I spend too much time thinking about this. It really does shatter me. Right to the core.
There are a lot of levels to this and it affects me in a personal way.
My son was a Marine. He was 23 and died by suicide in a violent way. Of course mental illness is involved, but James and Aaron are so much more than that. They had good hearts. Reading about Aaron's connection to religion didn't surprise me. James was the same and he felt like he had disappointed God.
One of the last texts I got from him, which I still have, he talked about Donald Trump and how someone had to stop him, and he knew a way but it wasn't going to be easy. I guess he meant from the next realm because that's where he went. He thought this was all the Matrix anyway. None of it was real, so it really didn't matter. Death wasn't real.
After almost 8 years, I'm still bawling my eyes out trying to speak these words here. I've cried my eyes out for the loss of this poor boy, and his mother, and I know he didn't die in vain. Of course the people against this war in Gaza, war ON Gaza, will see his sacrifice as meaningful. Important. I just wish those who are for this appalling genocide of humans will understand just what happened here.
On another note, I just want to thank Bill for having this place for everyone to speak out. There are a lot of intelligent people here that I feel are making a difference in some way also. Words have power. Free Palestine.
This isn't some Jim Jones cult, as some Zionists are saying. It looks like an ecumenical offshoot of Benedictine-style Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism. IOW, sort of like monks, which might help explain how Bushnell had the spirit to do what he did. Chances are our Aaron was deeply devout, and I mean that in a good way.
When push comes to shove in terms of religion and Ultimate Questions, I'm agnostic, and arrogant enough to believe that if I don't know then nobody else does, either, but I have a deep respect for religious people who try to practice what they preach.
No practice is more real than what Aaron Bushnell did.
A friend sent me a Wa. Post article which paints the airman as a religious nut of sorts, having been raised in a religious commune. The Post doesn't overdo it, but it does make the point that his commune was committed to Jesus. Nothing in the article describes anything about the treatment of Palestinians or the behaviors of Israeli occupiers over a multi generation period or what daily life was like in the "open air concentration camp" or anything at all about what life has been like for the past few weeks. I hope people may start to notice that our media only attacks those who show extraordinary love and sacrifice toward those being bombed, starved and tortured in every possible way, yet have nothing critical to say of the hundreds of young men who have done the same thing out of hate and blood lust. I speak of those who who have gone off to join Ukraine's Nazi battalions in the hope they can kill Russians they have been taught to hate by our mendacious MSM for the past few generations.
This was the second act of self-immolation to protest the Israeli genocide. In December, a woman did the same outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. I had never heard of that incident before today, though apparently there were a number of reports immediately after the incident. The MSM news never touched it beyond brief mention, if that - where was Rachel Maddow, the avatar of journalism, with her followup and incisive comments? That's right, it wasn't Trump, Trump, Trump.
I highly recommend this article by Ann Wright on the history of people setting themselves on fire to protest war
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/02/26/why-would-anyone-kill-ones-self-in-an-attempt-to-stop-a-war/
Update 2/27, 0820 EST: Disgracefully, this was the headline of a story at the Washington Post on Bushnell: "Airman who set self on fire grew up on religious compound, had anarchist past." It appears Bushnell grew up in a Christian society in Orleans on Cape Cod, that he joined the Air Force in 2020, served as a cyber defense ops specialist in Texas, and was interested in U.S. history, socialism, and anarchism. The Washington Post article is at pains to portray him as being raised by a weird, possibly abusive, Christian cult while putting a heavy stress on his interest in anarchism. He also liked cats and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, so you just know he was a misfit. In all seriousness, Bushnell seems to me to have been an unusually principled and sensitive man who acted out of strong moral conviction.
Follow this link for a decent CNN report on Bushnell's death and its intent:
https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1762212568398278893
Not surprisingly, I'm not the only one to notice the bias in MSM coverage. I saw this right after I wrote and posted my article: https://twitter.com/LeeCamp/status/1762169241875186019
Bushnell could not have stated his motives more clearly. It is absolutely pathetic that any news organization could label his horrific end as an "apparent protest." I'm left pondering the New Testament statement, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." May Bushnell's death not be in vain.
Tweet just sent to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan after watching the video in the link Roger posted.
@JakeSullivan46
You and the President are responsible for the Death of US Serviceman Aaron Bushnellls self immolation in protest of the Israeli genocide in Gaza as you blame Putin for the death of Navalny. The SOB President has the Power and leverage to stop the genocide. Do it
Thankfully, others have also done their part to try to break through the attempts to muffle the voice of this martyr for peace and justice. And we learn from some that Aaron was one of a number who've tried to wake up their society to the inhumanity which is enabled by our silence and willingness to 'go along to get along'. See, e.g. : https://husseini.substack.com/p/ignoring-immolators-lulls-the-society?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=201840&post_id=142048637&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=b7kag&open=false&utm_medium=email .
I won't watch the video to which he links as I am already reeling from the grief that attends to the reason for it.
A Brave man. I mourn his Passing..!
Wasn't there a self-immolation outside the Pentagon office of Robert McNamara during the Vietnam War? I understand that it affected McNamara greatly. Significantly, because it is so unusual among the powerful, McNamara felt remorse for his participation in the Vietnam War.
Tolstoy wrote a book, "The Kingdom of God is Within You" in which he made the case that there could be no war without the willing participation of individuals as soldiers. War could be stopped if no one could be found to fight, but history has shown us that young men, the age of Bushnell or younger, are eager to fight and with no understanding of the context of the war being fought. This is only more proof that we are emotionally driven creatures, with reason tagging along far behind usually employed to rationalize emotion.
What inspires awe in what Bushnell did is his acceptance of responsibility. Here is this low ranking member off the armed forces (and as such a representative of government) taking his life to protest what he cannot stop and did not start, while the Commander in Chief who has had the power to stop the carnage, and repeatedly has refused to do so mouths empty words. He is an empty suit.
One man with no power, takes responsibility by sacrificing his life.
One man, all powerful, refuses his responsibility and permits unending horror by his inaction while expecting our votes to keep him in power.
We know of another individual who we are told sacrificed his life not just for a group, but for all mankind and the powerful story still resonates. Yet Bushnell's case is remarkable for being different from that of Jesus. Jesus was not complicit with something wrong, but simply "went around doing good" and went to his death an innocent. Bushnell was complicit as part of an agency, the US government, undeniably doing wrong, and took it upon himself to divorce himself from it in the most powerful way possible.
I was never in the military and I certainly would not salute Joe Biden, but I readily salute Aaron Bushnell, an individual who fully felt his responsibility. That is something that the rest of us keep out of mind because we would find it unbearable. So did he, but he acted on it.
Thank you for covering this sad event, Bill. The Aaron Bushnell story gets conveniently buried by corporate news (CNN, ABC, FOXNEWS) unless I intentionally search for the article. I learned about it from Caitlin Johnstone's and your writing in Substack. This is the kind of action - as uncomfortable as it is to watch - that people need to acknowledge in order to shake themselves out of the world of constant distraction that our culture places us in. The world of "but - Trump" and "blue no matter who". The world that wants us to "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain". Anything to divert people's attention from the US Support for a horror show genocide by Israel and instead to give people pause to ask, why does the US have over 1000 bases around the globe? And why does a police force respond with guns drawn and drop-to-the-ground commands during such a situation rather than trying to rescue Mr. Bushnell? Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell. You tried.
WHEN I FIRST READ THIS ORWELL QUOTE I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT. TODAY I DO, AND THAT FRIGHTENS ME Is Truth Being Destroyed By Propaganda? by Jon Miltimore / The Take 022824
George Orwell (1903-1950) once wrote that "history stopped" in 1936.
Truth after that point was drowned out by state propaganda. It was a phenomenon that clearly terrified him.
"I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed.
“I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened.
“I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”
When I first read this quote, which comes from his 1943 essay “Looking back on the Spanish War,” I didn't have any idea what Orwell was talking about.
Today, I understand exactly what he was talking about. And that terrifies me.
Source: https://jjmilt.substack.com/p/when-i-first-read-this-orwell-quote
I spend too much time thinking about this. It really does shatter me. Right to the core.
There are a lot of levels to this and it affects me in a personal way.
My son was a Marine. He was 23 and died by suicide in a violent way. Of course mental illness is involved, but James and Aaron are so much more than that. They had good hearts. Reading about Aaron's connection to religion didn't surprise me. James was the same and he felt like he had disappointed God.
One of the last texts I got from him, which I still have, he talked about Donald Trump and how someone had to stop him, and he knew a way but it wasn't going to be easy. I guess he meant from the next realm because that's where he went. He thought this was all the Matrix anyway. None of it was real, so it really didn't matter. Death wasn't real.
After almost 8 years, I'm still bawling my eyes out trying to speak these words here. I've cried my eyes out for the loss of this poor boy, and his mother, and I know he didn't die in vain. Of course the people against this war in Gaza, war ON Gaza, will see his sacrifice as meaningful. Important. I just wish those who are for this appalling genocide of humans will understand just what happened here.
On another note, I just want to thank Bill for having this place for everyone to speak out. There are a lot of intelligent people here that I feel are making a difference in some way also. Words have power. Free Palestine.
Aaron Bushnell was a member of the Community of Jesus on Cape Cod. This is their "About" page:
https://communityofjesus.org/about/
This isn't some Jim Jones cult, as some Zionists are saying. It looks like an ecumenical offshoot of Benedictine-style Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism. IOW, sort of like monks, which might help explain how Bushnell had the spirit to do what he did. Chances are our Aaron was deeply devout, and I mean that in a good way.
When push comes to shove in terms of religion and Ultimate Questions, I'm agnostic, and arrogant enough to believe that if I don't know then nobody else does, either, but I have a deep respect for religious people who try to practice what they preach.
No practice is more real than what Aaron Bushnell did.
What would we do without our dear news media? Maybe become a functioning nation again.
A friend sent me a Wa. Post article which paints the airman as a religious nut of sorts, having been raised in a religious commune. The Post doesn't overdo it, but it does make the point that his commune was committed to Jesus. Nothing in the article describes anything about the treatment of Palestinians or the behaviors of Israeli occupiers over a multi generation period or what daily life was like in the "open air concentration camp" or anything at all about what life has been like for the past few weeks. I hope people may start to notice that our media only attacks those who show extraordinary love and sacrifice toward those being bombed, starved and tortured in every possible way, yet have nothing critical to say of the hundreds of young men who have done the same thing out of hate and blood lust. I speak of those who who have gone off to join Ukraine's Nazi battalions in the hope they can kill Russians they have been taught to hate by our mendacious MSM for the past few generations.
This was the second act of self-immolation to protest the Israeli genocide. In December, a woman did the same outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. I had never heard of that incident before today, though apparently there were a number of reports immediately after the incident. The MSM news never touched it beyond brief mention, if that - where was Rachel Maddow, the avatar of journalism, with her followup and incisive comments? That's right, it wasn't Trump, Trump, Trump.