An active-duty member of the Air Force burned himself in uniform outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening in what appears to be an ignorant attempt by a young leftist in our military to protest Israel’s war against Hamas.
Casey Gannon reports for CNN:
The man identifies himself as Aaron Bushnell and says, “I will no longer be complicit in genocide” before going on to say that what he’s about to do is minimal compared with the suffering of Palestinians.
He then sets the recording device on the ground before pouring an unknown liquid over himself and igniting it while yelling “Free Palestine” repeatedly. He eventually collapses as police officers rush to douse the flames with fire extinguishers.
Rose Riley, a spokesperson for the US Air Force, told CNN, “I can confirm an active duty Airman was involved in today’s incident.”
As one would expect, the DOD prohibits political activity in uniform (even if that uniform is melted into one’s flesh):
The primary guidance concerning political activity for military members is found in DoD Directive 1344.10. Per longstanding DoD policy, active duty personnel may not engage in partisan political activities and all military personnel should avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply DoD sponsorship, approval, or endorsement of a political candidate, campaign, or cause. Members on active duty may not campaign for a partisan candidate, engage in partisan fundraising activities, serve as an officer of a partisan club, or speak before a partisan gathering. Active duty members may, however, express their personal opinions on political candidates and issues, make monetary contributions to a political campaign or organization, and attend political events, in their personal capacity, as a spectator when not in uniform.
Mr. Bushnell is, quite obviously, a damaged man in every respect. Oddity is normal in the armed forces — we often vaunt diversity in the ranks, a fine thing, but such variability also bears with it some less than ideal priors — so it’s conceivable that Bushnell was on his command’s radar but hadn’t done anything to warrant action . . . at least until now. He’ll no doubt face nonjudicial punishment (reduction in rank and pay) and maybe even a court martial (jail time), though the most painful lesson will be the skin grafts and rehabilitation for which one hopes the American taxpayer will not have to pay.
As for his likely partisanship, it’s telling that Bushnell described Israel’s efforts as “genocide” and harmed himself rather than anybody else. Antisemitism has ignominious redoubts on the extremes of the left and right, and outward violence tends to be the province of the antisemitic right. In what appears to be Bushnell’s LinkedIn profile, he opts to list his pronouns (he/him). All of this suggests that the man is a leftist of some variety who does IT work for the Air Force. Looking at his Facebook groups practically confirms as much, as Bushnell has liked pages such as “Burning River Anarchist Collective” and “Students for Justice in Palestine — Kent State University.” His most recent post, made just before burning himself and linking to a now-defunct Twitch link, reads: “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.” (I would not be surprised to learn much of this came from TikTok.)
It’s just sad. A foolish lost soul who seems to have swallowed Hamas’s lies and destroyed himself in an embarrassing episode for the Air Force.