A friend of Aaron Bushnell, the American soldier who set himself on fire in protest at Israel’s war on Gaza, says the self-immolated soldier did not die in vain as he brought the Israeli-American genocide in Palestine into the spotlight.
Speaking with Democracy Now, an independent American news program, Levi Pierpont said his views on wars and those of his friend evolved due to their military experiences.
“Over the years, both of us shifted, of course, in our beliefs regarding war, largely because of what we saw in the military, largely because of the things that we learned because we were a part of it,” Pierpont said on Wednesday.
“I want people to remember that his death is not in vain, that he died to spotlight this message,” he added.
He noted that he would have stopped Aaron from carrying out the self-immolation if he had known his intention, “But seeing the way that the media responds now, now that this has happened, it’s hard not to feel like he was right, that this was exactly what was necessary to get people’s attention about the genocide that’s happening in Palestine.”
Pierpont noted that he personally conscientiously objected and left the military last July and Bushnell also considered leaving back then, but decided not to follow the same path.
According to Pierpont’s remarks, the two found inspiration from social media content creators advocating for social justice movements in the US.
Pierpont expressed his deep sorrow over the death of Bushnell whom he met in Air Force basic training, saying he shed tears after learning the news about his friend setting himself on fire outside the embassy of the Israeli regime.
In a video, which was live-streamed on the social media platform Twitch on Sunday but was later removed, Bushnell, an active-duty member of the US Air Force, said “I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”
He was yelling “Free Palestine!” repeatedly, as he was going up in flames after setting himself on fire.
Protests against Israel have become a near-daily occurrence across the United States since the regime launched its bloody campaign in Gaza in early October.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 30,035 Palestinians and injured 70,457 others.
