Air Force searches for ‘lessons’ after airman’s self-immolation |
Air Force Chief Gen. David Allvin addressed an airman’s recent self-immolation in protest of America’s role in Israel’s war in Gaza, saying the service is investigating the “tragedy,” the highest military official to yet address the situation. |
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Active-duty airman Aaron Bushnell, 25, of Whitman, Mass., a cyber defense operations specialist, died Sunday evening after he set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington earlier that day.
Before he set himself aflame, the airman announced he would “no longer be complicit in genocide,” shouting “Free Palestine” over and over in the moments after he was engulfed.
“For our Air Force, we look at this as, whether it was politically motivated or others, we lost one of ours,” said Allvin, who made the comments after he was interrupted multiple times by protesters at a Brookings Institution think tank event in Washington.
“Any suicide, whether by political protest or by resiliency issues or wherever it is, is a tragedy,” he continued. “As we’re looking at wherever the rationale might be, there’s a standard investigation process [to] go through that and we look at that to make sure we understand everything about it without invading the personal privacy.”
The Defense Department and White House have largely stayed quiet on the event, with spokespeople for both referring to it as a “tragedy.”
A statement from the Air Force only identified Bushnell as involved in “an incident near the Israeli Embassy.”
The protesters on Wednesday heckled the Air Force chief, shouting statements that included “say his name” and “cease-fire now.”
America’s ongoing support of Israel has drawn the ire of protesters, who say the U.S. is complicit in the devastating air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Allvin didn’t respond to the protesters directly, and Brookings silenced the sound on the event’s video feed when protesters attempted to be heard.
Later when asked about Bushnell’s death during a question-and-answer portion of the event, Allvin turned it into a moment to address the wider issue of suicide in the ranks.
“We have about 100 or so suicides per year, and every year we try to get after how do we reduce this? So right now, where we are in that status is, understanding that has a lot of political fervor attached to it,” he said.
“This is just one of our airmen that we lost and we’re looking after the family, we’re looking at the unit and really trying to understand if there’s any context behind this, what lessons can be learned.”
Read the full report at TheHill.com. |
Aaron Bushnell also grew up in a strict religious sect, the Community of Jesus, whose members would often join the military
Richard Luscombe
A uniformed airman who burned himself to death in protest over the US’s role in Israel’s military strikes in Gaza was an anarchist who grew up in a strict religious sect with links to a school in Canada that “controlled, intimidated and humiliated” students, it was reported on Tuesday.
US air force member dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy
Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty US air force senior airman from San Antonio, Texas, died in hospital on Sunday several hours after he doused himself in a flammable liquid and set himself alight outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.
Bushnell, 25, livestreamed the self-immolation on the social media platform Twitch, declaring he “will no longer be complicit in genocide” and shouting “Free Palestine” as he started the fire.
Less than two weeks before the episode, Bushnell and a friend spoke by phone about what “sacrifices” were needed for them to be effective as anarchists, the Washington Post reported on Monday, having spoken with several people who knew him.
Bushnell did not mention anything violent or self-sacrificial during the call, the Post said, citing the friend.
But on Sunday morning, just before setting himself on fire at about 1pm outside the embassy on International Drive, he texted the friend, whom the Post did not name to protect his anonymity. “I hope you’ll understand. I love you,” Bushnell wrote. “This doesn’t even make sense, but I feel like I’m going to miss you.”
He also sent the friend a copy of his will, the newspaper added. In the will, Bushnell gave his pet cat to a neighbor and root beers in his fridge to the friend.
According to the air force, Bushnell was a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st intelligence support squadron at joint base San Antonio. He had been on active duty since May 2020. And he was set for discharge in May after a four-year term of duty.
The Post spoke with some people who described his upbringing on a religious compound in Orleans, Massachusetts, run by a Benedictine monastic religious group called the Community of Jesus. He was a young man who liked karaoke and The Lord of the Rings, they said.
The church, however, has a darker side, at least according to a lawsuit in Canada brought by former students of a now-closed Ontario school where many officials were alleged to be members of the US-based religious group, according to the Post.
Those officials, the students said, ran a “charismatic sect” that “created an environment of control, intimidation and humiliation that fostered and inflicted enduring harms on its students”.
The school and church denied the allegations. But an appeals court last year awarded the former students C$10.8m (US$8m).
Susan Wilkins, who left the church in 2005, when she said Bushnell was still a member, told the Post it was common for members of the Community of Jesus to join the military, from “one high-control group to another high-control group”.
At the time of his death, Bushnell was making plans to transition back into civilian life in May. He told another friend, quoted by the Post, that he considered leaving the air force early to “take a stand” against what he saw as state-sponsored violence, especially US support for Israel in Gaza. But he decided he was close enough to the end of his contracted term of duty to be able to stick it out.
Officials at Southern New Hampshire University said Bushnell had enrolled for an online computer science degree course in August 2023 and was registered for a new term beginning next week.
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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