Posted on 11/07/2003 7:31:52 AM PST by presidio9
Jessica Lynch has angrily accused the Pentagon of using her for propaganda. The 20-year-old private, portrayed as a female Rambo after she was captured by Iraqis during a blazing gun battle, then freed by American troops, told ABC there was no reason for her rescue from an Iraqi hospital to be filmed.
"They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff," Lynch said in an interview with Diane Sawyer that airs Tuesday, Veterans Day.
"Yeah, it's wrong," Lynch said. "I don't know why they filmed it, or why they say the things" they said.
That footage of U.S. commandos wheeling a grimacing Lynch to a waiting chopper was among the most dramatic of the war - and helped cement her image as a female warrior.
But Lynch said the true heroes were the soldiers who saved her.
"They're the ones that came in to rescue me," she said. "I'm so thankful that they did what they did; they risked their lives. ... They are my heroes."
She also disputed the Pentagon's early version of her capture by Iraqis, which suggested she had heroically defended herself - going down only after firing all her ammo.
Lynch says her M-16 jammed and she never got off a shot.
"My weapon did jam and I did not shoot, not a round, nothing," she said simply.
There was no immediate response from the Pentagon, which awarded Lynch a Purple Heart for her injuries.
ABC released excerpts of Lynch's first television interview yesterday after the Daily News obtained a copy of Lynch's authorized biography and revealed its most shocking secret - that she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
She has no memory of the rape. The book says there was a three-hour gap after her capture, a blank in her mind, during which she was assaulted.
"Even just the thinking about that, that's too painful," she told Sawyer.
Lynch said she was awakened from her stupor by searing pain.
"I seriously thought I was going to be paralyzed for the rest of my life," she told ABC.
The young soldier said at first she did not trust her Iraqi doctors - and tried to stifle her screams.
Trapped in her bed, Lynch said, she tried to tame her terror by thinking about her family, her fiancé, Sgt. Ruben Contreras, and her G.I. buddy Lori Piestewa.
After she was rescued, she learned Piestewa was dead.
In her book, "I Am a Soldier, Too," author Rick Bragg says the scars on Lynch's body and medical records indicate she was anally raped, and tells the reader to "fill in the blanks of what Jessi lived through on the morning of March 23, 2003."
Lynch says her unit was sent into battle armed only with M-16s - no grenades or anti-tank weapons - and in lumbering trucks that could not keep up with the convoy barreling toward Baghdad.
When the trucks in her unit tried to catch up, radio contact with the main convoy was lost - and so were they.
She was filled with foreboding.
"Jessi's fear of being left behind was beginning to come true," Bragg wrote.
When telling the truth makes you lose respect for somebody, that's your loss. But isn't life funny, before today's revelations it was I who was constantly taking heat for my anti-Jessica comments in here. But this little gal is spunky, she stood me on my ear with her honesty and courage. She's standing up to the puppetmasters who would try to embellish her story for their own gain. Not many people do that anymore.
I'm a Republican, I voted for Bush and I listen to your show every day, Rush.
Very well said, I agree with you, totally.
I admire your courage and strength to press on.
I also have you down as someone who believes whatever the liberal media tells him without checking it out.
Yes, but often overlooked if the NCO is not directly in the soldier's chain of command.
ROTFLMAO!! Yeah, you've got me all figured out!
She's either a liar, or her brain didn't work. I've suprervised grammer school kids, girls and boys that never had a problem with the first shot. You pull the charging handle back and them push the release lever. Unless the mag is empty, or somehow forced in backwards, the gun ends up cocked and locked and fires when the trigger's pulled. She's an adult in the Army and M16/4s aren't some new gizmo with quirks.
You know how the media works... a retraction doesn't get as much attention as yesterday's screaming headlines!
Yes I sure do.
If this is true, and she's bad-mouthing the military, shame on her. She wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for them. She doesn't like being filmed by the military, but she has no problem writing a book, or having a movie made about her ordeal? I find her comments to be a bit hypocritical to say the least. She should just keep her mouth shut.
Many here who have experience with these guns say they can jam before firing. So maybe you should be careful who you call a liar.
The Pentagon admitted they ran into no resistance. There wasn't even anyone in the hospital when the rescue team arrived. I'm not knocking the rescue effort, I've said all along they were the real heros. But I think, in an honest moment of reflection, we all know it was filmed for certain purposes. This is fine with me because I support this war effort all the way; but why knock this Lynch kid for being pissed at being used for propaganda by ALL sides, military, feminists, news media? Don't you see that by telling the truth she has knowingly lost out on fame and a huge fortune? Personal integrity is more important to her than everything else, this is what makes her an awesome young gal in this generation of greed and selfishness.
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