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.
Think that the average woman in Iraq was subject to same treatment of Jessica had if they thought they had 'basic human rights' or to rebel against Saddam. This is part of the war on terrorism and the cost of freedom.
With the insecure and the perpetually angry...yes. lol
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.
Well then you're no better either, because the article didn't say she badmouthed the military.
If saying the military USED her isn't bad-mouthing them, then your definition of bad-mouthing is totally different from mine. Here's what the dictionary definition of bad-mouthing is:
To criticize or disparage, often spitefully or unfairly; run down.
I'd say she criticized the military unfairly.
It sure looked like a retraction. Well, then if you're calling her a liar again, you accuse on no evidence and you may be wrong anyway because of what I said about the jamming.
Yet you argue with someone who knows and gives you facts.
Because I've seen what men better than you have said. You have no credibility with me since you called Lynch a liar on no evidence.
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.
You again accuse on no evidence. Because of what was said about her then, half the country composed of people like you dislike her now. I can understand her being hurt by that. I personally think she should flip you guys off, but I'm a hothead.
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.
Accuse, accuse, accuse and there's no evidence to back what you say. You have no credibility whatsoever. She simply said she is hurt by what has been said about her.
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.
You are shameful. You accuse on no evidence. That is very shameful.
She didn't diss him! She said she would meet him in private. If she would've met him public, you guys would've been complaining that she was hogging the spotlight. You people are perpetually angry.
Read the article. She said she was used for morale. She didn't just say she was used. There's a big difference there.
I'd say she criticized the military unfairly.
You believe everything a liberal reporter says to you then.
First of all, you don't know me at all. Secondly, you seem to be the one who's angry. Thirdly, the incident as it was reported seemed like a dis, but I wasn't there so I don't know. Some say it was a dis, you say it wasn't. After your unwarranted attack on me I have no reason to believe you are necessarily more trustworthy than anyone one else.
But all of this thread simply proves my inital point: This Jessica Lynch saga is getting nasty. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well there's certainly a lack of focus and logic in your posts. You're saying that's just, because you're emotionally driven?
"is"? Where've you been? The nutty part of the right have been attacking her nonstop since April 1.
When in Rome...
You're saying that's just, because you're emotionally driven?
I'm saying that's there's no way I'd suck up to you people if I were her. Like I said, I'd take out a full page ad like Johnny Cash did.
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