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.
Because they didn't know all the facts. If they had to go and correct every media mis-statement, it would take all 135,000 people. Do you think in the middle of this they are going to waste precious manpower trying to get the exact story?
Somebody in uniform who seemed to have some connection with her said she fought hard. So what? The fact remains, that she broke her back, and thereafter, with a broken back, by her own testimony, she attempted to fight back. If her weapon hadn't jammed, it's likely she would have been shot to death. So it's not too hard to see that a fellow soldier, imbued with team spirit, wanted to accredit her with some level of heroism ---so what? Why is this a crisis?
Speaking of liars... She called the people that rescued her heros.
And so show me the quote in the title.
As far as she can remember, perhaps. I mean, the girl was raped and didn't remember it. The injuries she sustained and the circumstances surrounding the accident were enough to put anyone in shock. Who knows what kind of pain meds she was being given at the hospital (if any at all).
Her memories could easily be faulty.
Get your facts straight will you? Perhaps you can show me where I said what you've accused me of. I think you have me confused with some other people on FR. I've never demanded that she say anything to anyone. I've been under the impression all this time that she had no memory of anything.
LOL! You're not letting that credibility problem slow you down at all, are you?
You guys sound alike.
Read the article again. The title is a lie.
Actually, she was on the supply team, not a battle team, and she joined up voluntarily, so she apparently wanted to be involved in such things.
Well put.
By "you", I meant your side. I thought it was obvious.
I'm wondering how you know the "Marines" knew in advance that there was "nothing." As to the "tracer show," It would be normal in such a situation to set up diversionary fire. Probably incompetent NOT to do it.
Thanks for remaining a civilian. You may have saved the lives of many of our troops by your choice.
Credibilty because I forgot one post out of 300? Your overeaction to that little mistake speaks volumes. Again show me in the article where Lynch says "I was used". There is no period after the "used", that means the title is a quote out of context and a lie. Amazing you're defending this liberal rag for their lies.
Credibilty because I forgot one post out of 300? Your overeaction to that little mistake speaks volumes. Again show me in the article where Lynch says "I was used". There is no period after the "used", that means the title is a quote out of context and a lie. Amazing you're defending this liberal rag for their lies.
My side? You think you know me well enough to lump me in with everyone else? You flatter yourself. I don't like PFC Lynch bad-mouthing the military, that's my one complaint. How you managed to label me as having done something I didn't do, makes you no better than the media's tales of Lynch's heroic acts under fire.
You didn't comprehend all that was said. I meant what I said first and stick by it. Elaboration is not retraction.
"Than other guns! What do you think? lol... Discussions about pins mean nothing to me, we didn't go that deep.
Yet you argue with someone who knows and gives you facts.
" They lied. She said she was "hurt".
The Army bolsters the image of it's members by speeking positively about them and assuming the actions of it's members were in accord with the highest traditions and honor. It's good for morale. The Army doesn't respond with what may in fact be more truthful initial assesments of incidents such as this one. It's seems PFC Lynch would have prefered that. Had they done so, she'd still be shooting off her mouth about something else.
She PFC Lynch isn't focusing on America's intrest in ridding the region of Iraq of criminal ops and terrorists. Her focus is not on the interests of the US military and it's members performing the cleansing of the region. Her focus is on PFC Lynch and whatever mental wanderings are going on at the time she opens her mouth.
She second guessed the reason they filmed her rescue and got it wrong. The Army does what it can to rescue it's POWs. Not only does the filming and written record of that op serve for training purposes. It serves as a morale booster for both the armed services and the American public, in the face of leftist detractors. So it can be viewed as propaganda, but to focus on that empty statement alone is really shameful.
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