Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old U.S. Air Force soldier who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Consulate in Washington, D.C. to protest the U.S. military role in the Israeli genocide in Gaza, has inspired millions of people around the world for his sacrifice — from Yemen to Malaysia to Palestine to right here in the U.S.
Johnnie Lewis addresses the Aaron Bushnell memorial demonstration in Portland, Oregon, where veterans burned their military uniforms, Feb. 28, 2024. (Credit: WW photo: Lyn Neeley)
Despite rain, a crowd of Portlanders holding candles gathered to hear antiwar speakers and cheer as U.S. veterans burned their military uniforms on Feb. 28. The protest was to honor Aaron Bushnell and to oppose the U.S.-Israeli imperialist war on Gaza. There was international coverage of the uniform-burning, which was organized by About Face Veterans Against the War.
Johnnie Lewis, a member of Workers World Party and a Vietnam war resister, got a passionate response from the crowd of nearly all young people, while addressing them: “In 1967 I was 22. I was drafted into the U.S. army but refused to go. The FBI arrested me and threatened to send me to jail for three years. At the time, there were hundreds of thousands of young men who were resisting the draft, many of whom went to prison.
“While at an anti-war conference at the University of Kentucky, I met members of the American Servicemen’s Union. They were in their military uniforms talking about organizing against the war within the army. And I thought, ‘what the hell, I’m going to do that too instead of going to prison!’
“There was a huge anti-war movement, and military prisons during that time were full of soldiers. Anti-war service members who were put into the Fort Dix stockade in New Jersey burned the jail down in June of 1969. While at Fort Dix, I wrote for and helped distribute the ASU newspaper, “The Bond.” It was read by military men at Fort Dix and circulated around the world wherever there was a base or Navy ship, including inside Vietnam.”
Lewis asked the crowd: “Millions upon millions of young men were drafted. Can you imagine a draft today?” There was a resounding, unanimous “No!”
Concluded Lewis: “Young people today want the U.S. out of Gaza. We in the military in the late 1960s and early 1970s were a factor in ending the Vietnam war. The undying Vietnamese resistance was the main factor resisting U.S. imperialism, just like the Palestinians are today.”
Long live the Palestinian resistance!