A group of veterans from the US armed forces burnt their uniforms in a show of solidarity with the airman Aaron Bushnell, who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in a protest over the war in Gaza.Footage by Alissa Azar shows veterans lining up and taking turns to burn their military jackets at a vigil in Portland on February 28.A banner can be seen behind them, reading: “Veterans say: Free Palestine! Remember Aaron Bushnell.”The event was organized by the group About Face: Veterans Against the War, which told attendees to gather in front of the Wyatt Federal Building in Portland at 5 pm.Before setting himself on fire, Bushnell filmed himself saying he would “no longer be complicit in genocide". He then yelled “Free Palestine” several times as flames engulfed him. Credit: Alissa Azar via Storyful
  • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    I’m not sure how to feel about the level of support shown for Bushnell, when previous self-immolators have been thoroughly ignored.

    Part of me is glad that his death is not in vain, and his friends and family can take some solace in that fact.

    But part of me is terrified that 20 more people are going to try similar stunts and achieve… less-than-nothing.

    There are already too many martyrs. We need agitators. You can’t agitate if you’re dead or otherwise removed.

    Please: If you’re considering Aaron Bushnell an inspiration, be inspired by the fact that he did something unusual, not that he did something self-destructive. Go throw some soup on a Van Gogh instead.

    • thecrotch@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      7 months ago

      previous self-immolators have been thoroughly ignored

      Arguably a self imolator ended the war in Vietnam. He absolutely got the ball rolling.

      • masquenox@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 months ago

        Arguably a self imolator ended the war in Vietnam.

        No, he fucking didn’t. The Vietnamese breaking the US military through the use of force ended the war in Vietnam.

          • masquenox@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 months ago

            I hate to be the one to break it to you… but the Vietnamese broke the US military. Swallow all the cope the propagandists have been spoon-feeding you about this since the 70s - it doesn’t change anything.

            • Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world
              0·
              7 months ago

              What do you mean by “broke”? I’m quite literally in a class on the Vietnam War this semester, writing a paper about how ineffective our policy of bombing an agrarian society that only needed to supply its forces 50 tons of supplies a day.

              Please, elaborate.

              • masquenox@lemmy.world
                0·
                7 months ago

                ineffective our policy of bombing an agrarian society

                “Ineffective” at what? The indiscriminate carnage that the US visited on SE Asia from the air was possibly the most effective mass-slaughter campaign ever perpetrated by a colonialist power - it was even more effective than the colonialist slaughter Germany visited on eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during WW2.

                So no… as far as the tenets of colonialist warfare is concerned, it was perfectly effective.

                • Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  7 months ago

                  At stopping supplies and people from moving south?

                  So, our goal was genocide? I’m not saying we were the good guys, but clearly we weren’t comparable to the fucking Nazis eastern campaign.

                  You still didn’t answer what it meant to break the US military.