US airman dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy - eviltoast
    • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      10 months ago

      It was a protest against our nation’s complicity in genocide. This was objectively one of the most selfless acts and meaningful sacrifices imaginable. I have nothing but the utmost respect.

      • Philo@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        24
        ·
        10 months ago

        He said he would not take part in genocide anymore which I didn’t quite understand because he was stateside IT, not anything to do with combat or intelligence.

        • MrVilliam@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          21
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          10 months ago

          He was serving a military which was helping Israel to commit this genocide. Even removed from that, Americans are working and paying taxes which are being sent to fund Israel’s campaign to achieve genocide. It doesn’t matter whether he was pulling triggers himself, he knew that he was indirectly supporting the cause that he was so staunchly opposed to. I have too much to lose by standing (or dying) with him, so I don’t. I’m too cowardly to do what he did. I fucking despise that we are supporting Israel, but I can’t throw it all away in protest like he did. I’m not strong enough, and my family isn’t strong enough without me. Or maybe they are and I’m too selfish to self terminate for this cause.

          Because if what he did, we are talking about it. We are all wondering how many more airmen this will cost. Just because we aren’t putting our people on the ground to catch those bullets in person doesn’t mean there isn’t a cost. If we didn’t support that genocide, Aaron Bushnell would be home with his family tonight. You can blame him all you want, but I don’t think he was looking for a reason to abandon his family, I think he was disgusted by what he swore an oath to. We’re supposed to defend the weak, house the exposed, feed the hungry, wash the unclean, etc. Instead, we’re helping Israel to bomb schools and hospitals after telling people that those places are safe from their hellfire. History textbooks will reveal that we were standing idly by while our government funded this, downplayed this, and vetoed every attempt to pause this. There is no legitimate excuse to have allowed this to continue. I fucking hate my country for this. I’m ashamed to be an American, just as much today as I was during trump’s presidency. But I still want to take a moment to remind everybody that trump would’ve 100% made this even worse. I’m not saying to not vote for Biden. I’m saying please, for the love of God, vote in local elections, vote in primaries, and get us somebody better than this fucking shithead neolib next time, but in the meantime help him to beat the autocratic fascist because Biden is way better even though he still fucking sucks.

      • Philo@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        16
        ·
        10 months ago

        Nope. Wrong continent for that. Now if he was on active duty in the IDF you would have an argument.