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.
Funny how you keep mentioning it.
I am simply stating the obvious - Writing one statement and refusing interviews is a sign of wanting to be left alone. Doing interviews, writing a book and claiming the Army "use" you is not.
You're going off a liberal reporter's headline. He quoted her out of context. He lied.
Please show me one hit piece on Lynch from the mainstream media - I must have missed it.
Yeah, you must've missed all the stories where she supposedly dissed the Iraqi lawyer. Funny, but CNN forgot to mention that Lynch said she would meet him in private.
The best way to leave her in peace is to not post on threads about her.
How quickly you forget the threads about Lynch's comrades whose families wonder why their loved ones aren't even noticed.
I think they're upset about other things. They've lost family members after all.
My posts have always argued that. I have never criticized Lynch. I have strongly criticized the sick hype.
Hype that you contribute to by posting on these threads. Without a market, there would be no hype.
As I recall, you were a head cheerleader during the "Medal of Honor for Jessica" threads and you were the head cheerleader making her out to be a female Rambo.
You're lying. I never claimed she killed nine Iraqis. As for the other, yeah, I've been head defender.
That is precisely the kind of hype she now hates.
Hype that you contibute to by posting here. You bashers go away, and I'll go away.
I think she's a hero, too. It's the over-the-top hype that I argue against.
Aren't you over-the-top by posting about her 7 months after she was rescued?
To try to stop this sick hype.
As long as the bashers bash, the media will oblige.
Baloney.
A CNN article was on Free Republic bashing her for not meeting the Iraqi. The networks followed suit. Funny how they forgot to mention that she said she would meen him without the fanfare. I guess you missed it.
Not harsh word about Lynch.
This article is too. It's meant to turn the pro-military against her.
I highly doubt the interview by Sawyer will be unflattering to Lynch - but you can bet it will highlight the failings and deceptions of the Pentagon.
Have you not read this thread? It's got all the dull-minded mad at her.
Did Lynch ever say that the Army used her?
She didn't end it with that. The title has her out of context and therefore is a lie.
Well, there is a bit of hyperbole in your statements ("everyone and their grandmother" is a little sweeping, eh?), but I understand your premise. However I think that of all of the parties involved the Army and the Pentagon has "used" her the least.
As I said, the Army never provided a "Rambo"-like account. When asked if that was a possibility that Pvt. Lynch resisted her captors (insinuating the "Rambo" angle), the Army briefer responded that all soldiers are taught to fight regardless of their assigned task. That the possibility that the soldier received injures during combat was likely, but they couldn't verify that's what happened because they didn't have all of the facts.
That isn't confirming or denying the overdramatized "Rambo" angle that the press was bringing to the story about the initial capture. Now, I suppose that you can say they let the reporters romantic notions about combat stand, but as has been pointed out several times on this thread, that isn't the Army's fault. In fact, B. Gen. Vicent Brooks was very forthright with the media in his briefings. If you read the transcripts of these events, you will see that the media was pushing the "hero" angle alot more than the Army.
she was used by the Pentagon to help further the war effort
Sorry, not buying. Frankly, that statement is absurd. Yes, the war effort would have been stopped dead in its tracks hadn't Pvt. Lynch been rescued. Pardon me if I dismiss that comment outright.
Again, was this good news? Yes. I would think that anytime a soldier has suffered and is returning home, we are allowed to consider that good news...even people in the Pentagon. To express joy and elation would (and should) be expected. You will notice, however, that during those briefings, while noticably pleased, the briefers will still all business.
Again, if the Pentagon did something wrong about being joyful and even saying so (which they really didn't) at the return of Pvt. Lynch, then I never want them to be right. No soldier ever wants to leave anyone behind and those soldiers --even the ones wearing stars on their shoulders-- were right to be joyous.
Your statements are right on about the feminazis, the media, and, to some degree, certain conservatives, but the Pentagon, in my opinion, is the least guilty of "using" Pvt. Lynch.
Hey Jesse, if you were used by anyone, it was by the feminazi hags that have been insisting that women should be on the battlefield.
The guns work fine. Some soldiers place a rubber over the muzzle to keep out grit. That preserves the integrity of the barrel and throat if it's fired. It also works to prevent filling the barrel with sand if there's much of it stirring around.
There's that word again...yours, not hers. You keep putting words in her mouth.
"Therefore they [the liberal press] put words into people's mouths or quote out of context..."
Sorry, but I think you have the same problem.
"Cash took out a full page ad flipping off those who were criticizing him."
We know, you've said it enough times on this thread..three time to me alone.
The rape story was on the front page of the Daily News the previous day.
If anybody's got a right to complain, it's the black woman POW who was shot. Not only is she getting less money from the military, she's doesn't have any book or movie deals. That woman suffered a lot more than Jessica Lynch, and she's pretty much forgotten.
As far as the rest of the gun, it's assumed the owner didn't let the reciever and bolt area get completely buried and filled with dirt. Of course it's not going to work then. It's the equivalent of letting your lungs and belly fill up with dirt. Just as it's not all that difficult to avoid that condition in the owner. It's not all that difficult to prevent it happening to the gun.
A mag should be in place to limit dirt from getting into the bolt/reciever inside areas. Just as one can get sand in their pants though, a coating of sand and dust can get in the reciever. The gun can be hand cycled once, or no more than a few times to clear it and it's ready to go. The mechanism is robust enough that it won't end up in a jam, due to dirt, that's not simple to clear. Using it in such a condition for an extended time will wear it out quick, but it will still fire.
The bolt's closed.
" How about dust that gets in there when they're loaded?
The muzzle's the only consideration, unless it's been stored loaded and left in a sandstorm.
If carried by someone of limited strength and endurance, perhaps could such sloppy handling take place?
No. The owner would have to have a mindset the Army would have recognized right away in boot camp as being unfit for duty. Kids could handle the gun out there and still be able to work it.
That being said, this was a combat situation. PFC Lynch may have forgotten to load the first round, or some such thing. The NRA was founded by Union officers after they walked the battlefield at Gettysburg and found such things as multiple loadings of powder and ball on top of each other. ...
I'd hope that to be true, but for the Clintonized military's idea of affirmative action... and kids? how heavy is it? This isn't just a pistol.
That being said, this was a combat situation. PFC Lynch may have forgotten to load the first round, or some such thing. The NRA was founded by Union officers after they walked the battlefield at Gettysburg and found such things as multiple loadings of powder and ball on top of each other. ...
Roman candle???
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