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.
I see. So if Lynch had been a man then I would not be offended at him publicly bashing the Army? Wrong.
No thank you.
Although you do make a powerful, articulate argument, I'll pass, thank you.
You have one thing in common with PFC Lynch - neither of you know when to shut your mouths. But at least she's articulate and respectful.
Did she have a movie made of her story? Did she write a friggin book about her i'm-just-an-ordinary-person story ?Did she make any MONEY off of it? So who used who ?
What is it with you guys telling people to shut up? Why should anyone shut up? Liberal, conservative, let anyone say what they want.
You've been fooled by the liberal media. The headline of this article is a quote out of context and therefore a lie.
You're wrong. She called her rescuers "heros" and the headline of this article is a lie because it quotes her out of context.
She is accusing the Army of using her.
No, this headline is a lie. She said she was hurt that the false story was out there because people like you bash her now.
Being used by your employer, whether civilian or military, is understood by most rational people as the reason you are recieving pay, benefits and a promise of an eventual retirement package. Just a smidgen of appreciation toward those who assisted in bringing her home, would seem appropriate.
She called them heros. And she said they used her for morale, not just "used her" period, big difference.
Jessica suffered in captivity, in terrible ways, but she wasn't drafted into a position to wind up a captive, she joined the Army as was her right to do and of her own free will. She has only her self to blame for the things she has been through.
And the enemy. She was serving her country. So any soldier that gets hurt and abused by the enemy should only blame themselves if they volunteered?
I am thankful she is home and that her wounds are healing. But if she is a soldier too, as she says, she needs to start behaving like one. Soldiers cry, but soldiers don't whine.
You've been fooled by the liberal media. Her statement was a humble statement, not a whining statement.
Careful, what's she saying is that she is not the rambo, that we were told following her rescue. Frankly all that jessica shot her gun, so women should be in combat crap was annoying to say the least. Jessica is more or less saying that she's not a combat soldier.
"There were five Soldiers in 1SG Dowdy’s vehicle: 1SG Dowdy, his driver PFC Piestewa, and three Soldiers in the back—PFC Lynch, SGT Buggs and PFC Anguiano. 1SG Dowdy was killed on impact. Piestewa survived the crash, but was seriously injured and died in captivity. Lynch was also seriously injured and captured. The circumstances of Buggs’ and Anguiano’s deaths remain under investigation." 
I'd take that with a grain of salt. I didn't see anything in the offical report that she attempted to fire a jammed rifle, whereas it did state a number of others tried to fire jammed rifles.
Sadly, I've seen it happen with FReepers time and again. I expect it from the masses, the watchers of CBSNBCABCCNNadinfinitum, but expect better of our crew here. After all, exposing the media for what it is - a tool of the demonratsocialistcommietreasonouspropagandisers - and countering its influence with truth, was part and parcel of FR's founding.
We know one of their favorite tricks is taking quotes out of context.
The leftpress routinely 'reports' half the news; they now boldly take newsworthy quotes and shorten, chop, rearrange, and repunctuate them, as with President Bush's State of the Union speech.
Keep reminding them, #3Fan, someday soon not only FReepers, but everyone will get it.
The current official report says nothing about trying to fire her rifle. I don't know when the report was written, but I haven't see an amended report. The current report was released July 7.
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