In the steps that led you towards the death that you chose by immolation, in that short distance that led you to the embassy of the Zionist entity of Israel in Washington, we saw great strides towards a humanism lost by most of those who populate this accursed rock that the Earth has become. By your action, my son, and I say « my son » because you could have been, you have shown that fire not only burns, it also lights the way, the path of righteous men. And that is your path, the path of Justice, Righteousness, Honor and Dignity. You refused to follow and support the infamous war being waged by your country, the United States of America, and its armed wing, the criminal Zionist entity of Israel, against the Palestinian people. You wanted to tell them what you think by sacrificing your life. You made such a noise, my son, that every headline in the world is talking about you. But you don’t care. You’re not interested in the swamps of politics and politicians of all stripes. You’ve understood everything. You know that everything is for sale and that they’re chained, locked up, in the iron heel and eating the grapes of wrath, and you’ve told them that inside each and every one of us there’s an old man and the sea. And in my head the tunes of Woody Guthrie ring out.
It’s the story of a 25-year-old young man from Massachusetts, a serviceman working in cybersecurity for the USAF (US Air Force) who will never blow out his 26th candle because he thought of a people oppressed, bullied, starved, massacred, a people far away geographically but close to his heart, and who behaved like a true humanist by burning the star-spangled banner on his shoulder. I met people of his caliber, I met Colonel Andrew Bacevich, who lost his son in Iraq, and who told me that he would disobey an immoral order from the army chiefs. Yes, Aaron, my son, you’ve understood everything: their dirty wars continue against oppressed peoples, always attacking the weakest. In this law of the strongest, the law of the jungle, everyone has lost their humanity. There are only a few righteous people like you left who haven’t drunk their dignity from a glass of whisky. You wanted to stay intact and leave this vile, rotten world, gangrened by Wall Street, by the mire of politicians, by the shenanigans of American elections, and by so-called « international law ». What does international law, the UN, democracy, human rights and freedom of expression mean? Poppycock! Today, old people like Joe Biden don’t die, and young people die before they are born and before they are. And in between, monsters thrive.
Your mother and father mourn you, but humanity owes you a debt of gratitude. At 25, you performed the ultimate act of rebellion, rising above the fray. You performed a revolutionary act par excellence by offering your life. They’ll talk about you, they’ll say everything about you, they’ll try to drag you through the mud to minimize as far as possible the impact of your sacrifice, this sharp slap in the face of the powerful. In fact, the NSA has certainly gone through your data looking for your links with Bradley-Chelsea Manning or with the man they buried alive, Julian Assange, or with Edward Snowden, or Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and so many other brave men. Why not the Rosenbergs, while we’re at it? Or the massacred dockworkers of San Francisco? The only thing that will come out of this is immense disgust for those who run your country and the Zionist entity of Israel, and contempt for the Arab traitors who are letting it happen.
You have shown the people who hide in the hushed salons of criminal big business, devoid of humanism, infamous imperialism, which massacres peoples and slits children’s throats, and all those who wallow in a system of consumerism, lies and perfidy, that they cannot rule everything. There are free spirits who will always escape all their deceptive manipulations. I realize how immense your suffering was, because there’s nothing to be proud of in being an American, being born in a country that was built on the genocide of Native Americans and being in the same army as General Custer, just as there’s nothing to be proud of in being an Israeli and taking part in the theft of land and homes and the massacres of Palestinians. By this act, you have shown that you have been disappointed and disgusted with your country beyond belief. As much as I understand your gesture, I am just as proud of my country and the Algerian army. I’m proud of Algeria, the star that shines in the sky and pays tribute to the righteous like you. The founding fathers of the United States were so familiar with my country and its fabulous history that one of your first presidents said « We have to unite our States, otherwise the Algerians will invade us ». Yet despite having a large and powerful navy, Algeria was never imperialist.
You are the successor to the civil rights activists, the heir to those brave men from Malcolm X to Mohamed Ali and Martin Luther King, Angela Davis and all the others who refused to submit. You stood in military uniform in front of the infamous embassy of this criminal and murderous Israel, and in front of their door, you were the spokesman for the Palestinian people with your blood. And to top it all off, while you were dying, lying in flames on the ground, a policeman was aiming his revolver at you instead of brandishing a fire extinguisher. A surreal image of a country in perdition, which shows that it’s time to topple the star-spangled banner as a sign of distress.
Righteous people like you will always be remembered. Long after the rotten media in the pay of the Zionist empire have forgotten you, we will remember your act of bravery, like that of your compatriot, the young Rachel Corrie, who sacrificed herself on 16 March 2003 at the age of 23 to protect the home of a Palestinian family and who was crushed by a bulldozer in the hands of a Zionist criminal. We, the patriots who defend our countries and the just causes of the Palestinian and Sahrawi peoples, oppressed and uprooted from their land, will not forget you, just as we, the Algerians, were when we experienced abject colonisation. Your compatriots who served in the army have not forgotten you either, since they are taking action in your memory, as in Portland on 29 February, where veterans are burning their uniforms and calling on serving soldiers to remember Aaron Bushnell and to protest against the appalling massacre, a veritable genocide, of the Palestinian people by the criminal Zionist entity of Israel.
The fire that consumed you is sacred and today, all over the United States, veterans are burning their uniforms against the imperialist wars waged by your country. You showed them that the powerful will never be able to take away our humanity, because it runs deep. They will never be able to extinguish our light, which comes from so far away. You now shine like a star. Your cries of « Free Palestine » have been heard by many of us. You have become a symbol. From your ashes a phoenix will rise. Rest in peace, brave soldier, my son!
Mohsen Abdelmoumen
