Bushnell had more balls than the entire military who despicably dismissed his action while hiding behind a wall of boilerplate platitudes, much less the media, who did their best to bury the story.
So conscientiously researched as usual to refresh your memory and ours. And kudos for having so quickly self-caught that initial conflation of the Palestinian Facebook groups’ denunciation of the brutality of Hammas with the separate corruption of Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank Palestinian Authority (Yes, some of us enjoy reading you TWICE). Thich Quang Duc was the first of many immolations I remember witnessing via media, without actually having remembered the name. Of course, for impact, although not self-inflicted, nothing exceeded Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of 9 year-old “napalm girl” Kim Phuc running down the road toward the camera screaming, burned and naked, after having been mistaken for Viet Cong while actually in a group of Vietnamese fleeing south. The Cardinal Spellman subtext also calls to mind the opposing roll of religion in the Vietnam protest including Sister Corita, the Berrigan bros., and William Sloan Coffin. Diem also resurrects long ago images including the succession of Vietnamese juntas that seemed always disingenuously presented as better than the last, like that swashbuckler Field Marshall Ky, who probably regretted his pre-Trumpian expression of admiration for Hitler as a strong leader. What justification can ever get its head around 30,000 civilian deaths defies comprehension, regardless of alleged provocation.
Rog - I can't believe you caught that Abbas change on the second reading. Well done. As for the napalm girl, I think that goes down in history as a photo, along with the VC captive getting shot in the head on video, as iconic of human history and our self-inflicted miseries. Spellman drove all the Catholic crap in Vietnam. There was a bit of a void when the French abdicated and he saw a chance to make a big name for himself and rebuild the flock in Vietnam. I despised him, and the church, which had even greater sins and complicity with Hitler in WWII. And the hardest part about those 30,000 deaths is that about 13,000 are children and 9000 women and the rest males. If there were justice in the world, amigo, Netanyahu would be on trial already for war crimes.
The situation with Israel's genocide is infuriating...and America's continued support of Israel is disgusting...Bushnell's sacrifice, as others in the recent and distant past is great but as you point out is largely misrepresented and misunderstood...Thich Quang Duc came to mind with the reporting of Bushnell's actions...thanks for sharing the information...
Bushnell had more balls than the entire military who despicably dismissed his action while hiding behind a wall of boilerplate platitudes, much less the media, who did their best to bury the story.
Thanks for covering this, Jim. The context/history of immolation was helpful, too.
Thanks for reading, Jack, and for giving a damn.
So conscientiously researched as usual to refresh your memory and ours. And kudos for having so quickly self-caught that initial conflation of the Palestinian Facebook groups’ denunciation of the brutality of Hammas with the separate corruption of Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank Palestinian Authority (Yes, some of us enjoy reading you TWICE). Thich Quang Duc was the first of many immolations I remember witnessing via media, without actually having remembered the name. Of course, for impact, although not self-inflicted, nothing exceeded Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of 9 year-old “napalm girl” Kim Phuc running down the road toward the camera screaming, burned and naked, after having been mistaken for Viet Cong while actually in a group of Vietnamese fleeing south. The Cardinal Spellman subtext also calls to mind the opposing roll of religion in the Vietnam protest including Sister Corita, the Berrigan bros., and William Sloan Coffin. Diem also resurrects long ago images including the succession of Vietnamese juntas that seemed always disingenuously presented as better than the last, like that swashbuckler Field Marshall Ky, who probably regretted his pre-Trumpian expression of admiration for Hitler as a strong leader. What justification can ever get its head around 30,000 civilian deaths defies comprehension, regardless of alleged provocation.
Rog - I can't believe you caught that Abbas change on the second reading. Well done. As for the napalm girl, I think that goes down in history as a photo, along with the VC captive getting shot in the head on video, as iconic of human history and our self-inflicted miseries. Spellman drove all the Catholic crap in Vietnam. There was a bit of a void when the French abdicated and he saw a chance to make a big name for himself and rebuild the flock in Vietnam. I despised him, and the church, which had even greater sins and complicity with Hitler in WWII. And the hardest part about those 30,000 deaths is that about 13,000 are children and 9000 women and the rest males. If there were justice in the world, amigo, Netanyahu would be on trial already for war crimes.
The situation with Israel's genocide is infuriating...and America's continued support of Israel is disgusting...Bushnell's sacrifice, as others in the recent and distant past is great but as you point out is largely misrepresented and misunderstood...Thich Quang Duc came to mind with the reporting of Bushnell's actions...thanks for sharing the information...
Better watch out: AIPAC will come after you.