Posted on 11/05/2003 9:51:58 PM PST by saquin
BY PAUL D. COLFORD AND CORKY SIEMASZKO New York Daily News
NEW YORK - (KRT) - Jessica Lynch was brutally raped by her Iraqi captors.
That is the shocking revelation in "I Am a Soldier, Too," the much-anticipated authorized biography of the former POW. A copy of the book was obtained by The New York Daily News on Wednesday.
Best selling author Rick Bragg tells Lynch's story for her, often using her own words. Thankfully, she has no memory of the rape.
"Jessi lost three hours," Bragg wrote. "She lost them in the snapping bones, in the crash of the Humvee, in the torment her enemies inflicted on her after she was pulled from it."
The scars on Lynch's battered body and the medical records indicate she was anally raped, and "fill in the blanks of what Jessi lived through on the morning of March 23, 2003," Bragg wrote.
"The records do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead."
The 207-page saga published by Knopf hits bookstores Tuesday, which is Veterans Day.
In it, America's most famous G.I. - for the first time since her dramatic rescue on April 1 - dispels some of the mystery surrounding the blistering battle that resulted in her capture, her treatment by the Iraqis in a hellish hospital, and the searing pain that is her constant companion.
A 20-year-old from the hollers of West Virginia, Lynch knew what could happen to her if she fell into Iraqi hands. A female pilot captured in the Persian Gulf War had been raped.
"Everyone knew what Saddam's soldiers did to women captives," Bragg wrote. "In (Lynch's) worst nightmares, she stood alone in that desert as the trucks of her own army pulled away."
The nightmare became real in the dusty and dangerous city of Nassiriyah, when Lynch's unit got separated from its convoy and was ambushed by Iraqi fighters.
Bragg, a former New York Times reporter who quit after admitting he had a legman do some of his reporting, gives a cinematic account of the desperate firefight that mortally wounded Lynch's Army buddy, Lori Piestewa, and 10 others in the convoy.
But while early Pentagon reports suggested the young Army private heroically resisted capture, Lynch told Bragg she never fired a shot, because her M-16 jammed. "I didn't kill nobody," she said.
Lynch also denied in the book claims by Iraqi lawyer Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief, who said he saw one of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's black-clad Fedayeen slap her as she lay in her hospital bed.
"Unless they hit me while I was asleep - and why do that?" she said.
Lynch described to Bragg how Iraqi doctors were branded "traitors" by Saddam's henchmen for helping her and how they tried to treat her wounds in a shattered hospital where painkillers were scarce. She said one nurse tried to ease her agony by singing to her.
"It was a pretty song," she said. "And I would sleep."
Lynch also confirmed reports in the book that Iraqi doctors tried to sneak her to safety in an ambulance but turned back when wary U.S. soldiers opened fire on them.
But eight days after she was captured, Lynch found herself face to face with a savior.
"Jessica Lynch," he said, "we're United States soldiers and we're here to protect you and take you home."
"I'm an American soldier, too," Lynch replied.
Lynch's painful recovery from an ordeal that left her barely able to walk, unable to use her right hand or control her bowels is vividly described. So, too, is Lynch's discomfort with the spotlight - and with being called a hero.
"I'm just a survivor," she said in the book. "When I think about it, it keeps me awake at night."
---
© 2003, New York Daily News.
I suppose you will join the Army or Marines now and volunteer for Iraqi duty so all these young women don't have to....
IF we had enough young men to fill the ranks then it would be one story...
trouble is ..we don't ...
I encourage young people all the time to join the service or at least to join the Reserves or Guard....not many takers...
I will say it : THANK YOU JESSICA LYNCH AND ALL THE OTHERS WHO HAVE TAKEN IT UPON THEMSELVES TO SERVE OUR COUNTRY, A COUNTRY THAT DOES NOT APPRECIATE YOUR SACRIFICE AND DEDICATION......
a simple thankyou to our service men and women isn't that hard....
The only article I read about her refusal to see Al-Rehaief was a hatchet job by the Guardian (I think). The author was very condescending when stating that Lynch preferred to meet with Al-Rehaief privately, furthering the implication that she was insulting her saviour.
IMHO, I get the impression that she doesn't like being in the spotlight. A lot of her fame was based on speculations by an over-eager press, and the honest person she seems to be is uncomfortable with that.
Which proves that feminism is uncivilized. Thank you for your post.
When pandering to their voter base, nothing outweighs the need for votes. And besides, women can do anything men can do; NOW said so. If this episode were gingerly handled, it could come around and bite the Dims in their emasculated tushes. Fat chance it would get any legs. The newsies would be all over Pubbies trying to work any angle.
FGS
I thought I once heard that those wild desert sandstorms wreaked havoc on the weapons.
It's time to take the blinders off and be crystal clear about what really has been happening. The Iraqi's rape everyone they capture, male and female alike. Every single captured American soldier during the Persian Gulf War was raped. They make no distinction as to sex of the victim or the orifice orifice used.
It is a dangerous thing to demonize your enemy and paint them as some kind of degenerate sub-human animal. However, when your enemy chooses to paint themselves with that brush, then that is another matter altogether and then no rational person can afford to pretend that they are something other than what they've shown us they are.
--Boot Hill
Huh? There hasn't been a need for the draft in over 28 years because the all volunteer military is working very well. Women aren't needed in combat roles in the military, and they aren't wanted there. Their training is easier than their male counterparts just so they can pass the tests and wear the uniform.
More females 'sailors' get discharged early because of pregnancies than you can shake a stick at. I have read about more good soldiers, including highly competent and capable General Officers, be forced to leave the military for "sexual harrassment", (asking for a date), that they could almost make up a regiment of their own. Take feminism and stick it where the sun don't shine.
Been there; done that; a long time ago.
I encourage young people all the time to join the service or at least to join the Reserves or Guard....not many takers...
Well, if push comes to shove, there's always selective service. There are plenty of young people to serve, and particularly since 9/11 I don't know of many recruiters having any problems. Young folks just need to be motivated. With bent willie gone, the military will once again gain some of the respect they deserve and the volunteers will follow.
There were 15 soldiers killed in a helicopter shootdown not 2 days ago. In 2 more days it will be old news. What makes Jessica's situation any more newsworthy than that story? Because she is a female?
FGS
Come now. The reason that women have been asigned front line positions has absolutely nothing to do with a shortage of male soldiers and support personnel. It has everything to do with socialist PC politics having infiltrated the command structures of the Military. That being said, I certainly applaud the bravery and integrity of any woman who joins the ranks at the front, and my heart goes out for PFC Lynch. I just think it is a destructve policy to allow female personnel to be put in such harms way.
Brave talk. Having a baby is natural, getting raped is not; especially by a gang of drooling, filthy, barbaric, bloodthirsty Islamic thugs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.