AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show remembering Aaron Bushnell. A year ago last week, February 25th, 2024, Aaron Bushnell self-immolated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest the U.S. support for Israel in Gaza. Bushnell posted a message online that read, quote, “Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now,” unquote. A few hours later, Aaron Bushnell walked towards the Israeli Embassy in D.C. wearing his Air Force uniform. He began the live stream on his phone and spoke as he approached the embassy gates.

AARON BUSHNELL: I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.

AMY GOODMAN: Aaron Bushnell then placed his phone on the ground, stood in front of the Israeli Embassy gate and doused himself in a liquid before setting himself on fire. He shouted “Free Palestine!” several times as he was consumed by the flames. Those were his last words.

Last week, vigils were held outside the Israeli Embassy and the White House to remember Aaron Bushnell. Today, we’re joined two guests. Lieutenant Joy Metzler is an active-duty Air Force lieutenant who just wrote a piece for Mondoweiss headlined “I am seeking a discharge from the U.S. military over the Gaza genocide. I was inspired by Aaron Bushnell.” She helped launch Servicemembers for Ceasefire. She’s joining us from Florida. And in Baltimore, we’re joined by Levi Pierpont, who met Aaron Bushnell at basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in May 2020. Pierpont went on to become a conscientious objector. He recently posted a piece on his website titled “The hardest sacrifice is to live: Reflections on collectivism one year after my friend’s self-immolation.”

Levi, let’s begin with you. Your thoughts on this first anniversary of Aaron Bushnell? I think it’s very significant that you said, “The hardest sacrifice is to live.”

LEVI PIERPONT: Yeah. Thank you, Amy.

Obviously, it’s surreal to think that it’s been a year. A lot has happened in that year. We’ve seen a lot play on the global stage, and a lot has changed in my life. And so, it’s just — it’s been a time to look back on that and a time to reflect. And I was glad to be able to do this with this piece and share things that I’ve been thinking about in the last few months leading up to this anniversary.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Levi, could you talk about the impact that Aaron’s death had on you, his sacrifice?

LEVI PIERPONT: Of course, yes. It was major. It was life-changing. But I went from that and got involved in student activism at the University of Michigan. In August, I went to Palestine. I went from being someone who had grown up Christian Zionist and was very sympathetic to Zionism to realizing how it’s interconnected with the American empire and realizing how we need to stand against it as Americans, because we’re implicated in it. It’s our money that’s going to this. And so, yeah, it has majorly impacted my life and introduced me to a lot of different spaces.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Joy into this conversation, who’s joining us from Florida. Joy Metzler, active-duty Air Force lieutenant, just wrote a piece for Mondoweiss, “I am seeking a discharge from the U.S. military over the Gaza genocide. I was inspired by Aaron Bushnell.” You really have not done a TV — a global TV/radio interview before, but talk about what you’re doing right now and what this first anniversary means for you, as a lieutenant seeking CO status.

LT. JOY METZLER: Hey, Amy. Thanks for having me on, first of all. I’m very honored to be here. And I do need to preface everything I say with that these views don’t reflect any official policy of the DOD or the United States Air Force, but they are feelings that I feel a lot of — I wish a lot of servicemembers would reflect.

But this first anniversary coming around was particularly difficult for me because of this concept of moral injury, which is a — it’s a mental condition where you are being forced to engage with something that conflicts with your morals. And it’s something that, actually, a lot of servicemembers do tend to struggle with, but it’s not as researched as something, for instance, PTSD. And for me, this really manifests in still having to go to work every day.

And a lot of people, I think, might question what I personally have to do with this genocide going on in Gaza, but I believe deeply in the idea of collective responsibility and that any kind of contribution to the U.S. military inherently helps this machine of warfare and imperialism and oppression continue.

And so, I think that was something that Aaron Bushnell felt strongly. And he, of course, started me on this journey towards my own self-discovery. And I’m not sure how long it took him to get to that point where he absolutely reached his breaking point and could not continue contributing to this system, but I feel like perhaps I can understand maybe a small fraction of what he feels, still having to be in the uniformed service while I watch my country fund, continually fund, a genocide that has not stopped.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Joy Metzler, could you talk about your journey? You were raised in a conservative Christian family. You’ve said in an interview that you were raised to believe that Israel is, quote, “the nation of God’s chosen people.” How has your understanding of the Middle East conflict and Israel’s war on Palestinians changed?

LT. JOY METZLER: So, yes, I grew up with many of the same talking points that people still try and use today to justify these humanitarian rights violations against the Palestinians. I grew up believing that anything Israel does is good, anything they do has to be ordained by God, or something along those lines. On a more political, world politics aside, I grew up thinking that Israel was our greatest and only ally in the Middle East, and the Middle East was full of people who wanted to kill us for no reason. And that sentiment continued and persisted throughout the academy. There’s no — there’s no real effort to try and change that sentiment, even though we had a common saying among the cadets, among my friends, that if you kill a terrorist, you create two more. And it’s that fundamental misunderstanding of terrorism and where it comes from that I think is continuing to fuel this fire. It’s continuing — it almost permits terrible acts to be committed against people who are even marginally connected to terrorism. And you see that word being thrown around, being used to describe so — being used to describe people who just want Palestinians to have human rights.

So, my journey to get to that point of thinking was a pretty long one. I had to tear down, first of all, my definition of “terrorism.” I had to tear down the propaganda that I had been fed that terrorists just kind of hate us because of who we are. I had to learn a lot. I had to supplement my understanding of the U.S.’s place in the global world order with —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds, Joy.

LT. JOY METZLER: — with history, based on, you know, the oppression of the U.S. military in regions. So, that’s really — that’s really how I got to where I am now.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. I want to thank Lieutenant Joy Metzler, active-duty Air Force lieutenant seeking conscientious objector status, and Levi Pierpont, who is a conscientious objector, a friend of Aaron Bushnell. They met at Air Force basic training in Texas.

That does it for our show. Democracy Now! produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!