Why He Died: Airman Aaron Bushnell Said ‘No’ to US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 29 February 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On February 25, active duty U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in protest of the war on Gaza. He screamed “Free Palestine” as he burned. His heroic act has shown the profound shift in U.S. consciousness against Israel’s war on Palestine, and inspired even greater resistance.
Brian Becker is joined by Mike Prysner, a veteran, anti-war activist, producer of The Empire Files & host of the podcast "Eyes Left.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force, an active duty member, |
| 0:09.0 | sat himself on fire on Sunday, February 25th in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., |
| 0:17.1 | saying moments before he did it, I will no longer be complicit in genocide. His sacrifice is heroic |
| 0:25.8 | and marks a profound shift in U.S. consciousness against Israel's war on Palestine. |
| 0:33.2 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to this week's episode of The Real Story on the Socialist Program. |
| 1:00.0 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. Welcome to this week's episode of The Real Story on the Socialist Program. |
| 1:13.0 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:15.2 | Today we're talking with Mike Prysner. |
| 1:17.8 | Mike is a veteran, an anti-war activist, a producer of the Empire Files, |
| 1:23.5 | and the host of the podcast, Eyes Left. |
| 1:27.2 | Mike Prysner, welcome back. |
| 1:29.0 | Thanks for having me, Brian. |
| 1:30.6 | A shocking event, Mike. |
| 1:32.5 | A truly shocking, horrifying, horrifying, mortifying event. |
| 1:37.9 | Aaron Bushnell took his own life. |
| 1:40.6 | I know you said in the very eloquent statement that you published that you didn't even or couldn't |
| 1:46.8 | even look at the entire video. I couldn't either, except I looked at it yesterday for the first time, |
| 1:54.1 | the entire thing. The man holds his position while he's fully on fire. And as he's inflamed, he's screaming, yelling, |
| 2:04.3 | free Palestine, free Palestine, free Palestine, until he finally collapses. In other words, |
| 2:08.9 | he wasn't even yelling about the pain that he had. He maintained this sort of position, |
| 2:15.0 | this discipline. An amazing story, I was at a vigil last night in Times Square, |
| 2:21.6 | torrential rain. Huge crowds of people just stood there for hours. And it's all over the world, |
... |
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