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.
"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."
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.
arab society, religion-of-peace alert.
Sick bastards. These are the type of people we're fighting. It makes me ill to think that our own government is going to punish Col. West for his effective interrogation of an Iraqi spy.
I can only scratch my head when I read posts like this. What do people think war is anyway, a friendly game of darts? You send female 'soldiers' into a foreign land to kill their people and you expect them to be treated well when they are captured? This is precisely why we must not send women into combat. IMHO any country that sends its women into combat is a country that has lost its grip on decency.
Hard to believe, but.... In any case, they weren't prepared to fight it seems. Since they weren't on the front lines they may have neglected to take care of their equipment. Tough call.
FGS
My point is mainly that, on the front lines, male soldiers should not have to face the additional psychological burden of feeling that they have to "care for" their female counterparts. This has been, and continues to be, the case ever since this idiotic experiment in PC political influence over the military began in the early 1990's.
Add: The Democrats have no concept of how to manage military operations, and so they have no business doing so -- and the conservaitives should stand up and tell them that this is the end of their inane experiments with our lives and fortunes.
I would hate to see the status of the services if not for women...
my mother cared for dying soldiers in WW2 at a TB hospital, and I happen to think her contribution to the war effort as a Navy nurse was equal to that of my dad, who fought with the Navy in the Pacific....
I would love to see a complete return to traditional roles for men and women...it ain't gonna happen..
It ain't gonna happen because too many people think that the gender roles are not exclusive...that men and women can do the same things as well....SOMETHING THAT I DON'T BELIEVE AT ALL.....but if one is going to say that women can not do men's work than that would require them to say that men can not do women's work, and that would mean that women would automatically get 100% custody of young children...since that is the traditional role of women....and judging by the number of Men's/Fathers rights topics that run weekly here on FR, I don't think that that notion is going to fly...
oh, and about those pregnancies...I suppose they were all Immaculate Conceptions weren't they....
No argument.
It was, and God bless your mother. But we're talking women in combat (or on the battlefield), not nurses. No one here is saying that women shouldn't be allowed to serve in any capacity.
Is this an anatomy question?
Basically koolaid served up by yer friends in the media. It's basically BS and everybody knows it, including you, but the utopian dreamers in the media keep spooning up the pablum. Treasonous bastards IMO.
FGS
War is Hell but there are some things that are not "permitted". "Toughen up" and "expect the worst" are not appropriate responses. Death is one thing but captured prisoners should not be treated this way. We have heard the agitprop press taking the US to task for the way we have been treating captured prisoners (in Gitmo as well as the Iraq War).
Damn shame! Do you suppose the support folks got the jammers and the front line troops got the working stuff? Some more of the bent one's legacy; not enough working weapons to go around?
FGS
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.