Air Force looking for ‘lessons’ from airman’s self-immolation over Gaza

Air Force Chief Gen. David Allvin on Wednesday 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.

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, he 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 the two buildings 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 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.”

Asked Monday whether Bushnell’s actions reveal a deeper issue of U.S. service members concerned about how Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons on civilians in Gaza, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder repeated the Biden administration’s stance that Israel has a right to defend itself. He added that defense officials “actively communicate” to Israel that it must take civilian life into account. 

“While our support for Israel’s inherent right to defend itself is ironclad, we’ve also continued to actively communicate our expectations that Israel take civilian safety and humanitarian assistance into account into their operations,” Ryder told reporters. 

“You see that incorporated into every conversation the Secretary has with his counterpart in Israel, as well as other U.S. officials. And we expect them to continue to adhere to the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law.”