Futher the report sayeth not. 
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.
Futher the report sayeth not.
Thanks for your excellent post! You pinged me on the prophecy thread that I haven't been able to get to yet so I'll say this: I think prophecy states the lying media as being one of the evils of the end times. The radical portions of fundamentalists are our current physical enemy, enemies that come and go, like the British, who were once our enemy but now our best friends, but the lying media and the other institutions connected to it are a big part of our spiritual enemy that have always been against us in one form or another.
There's a big difference between these two statements:
1. "The Army used me."
2. "The army used me to strengthen morale."
I'm amazed you can't see that.
Quote from Jessica Lynch found at the bottom of this article.
The reports that have been made by the Army haven't glorified her involvement or portrayed her in some light that could be considered propoganda (as Pvt. Lynch asserted in the Diane Sawyer interview, which was the spark that lit this thread's fire).
As I have pointed out on this thread several times, when initially asked --during the whole "fog of war"-- the Army briefer (Gen. Brooks) informed the reporters that the Army expects all soldiers to fight and that it wouldn't be uncommon for a soldier to fire his weapon in the face of an aggressor (duh! but, to the spineless reporters that went to Columbia witha silver spoon in their mouth, this is actually news). He added, however, that they still were trying to find the details out.
The reporters (not the Army or the Pentagon) took the hardly known facts and extrapolated it into this "Saving Private Lynch"/"Rambo" tale.
The fact is that Pvt. Lynch suffered a terrible ordeal. We all wish that she hadn't gone through it. We all wish her as full a recovery (physical and mental) as possible. However, her comments were misdirected at the Pentagon.
"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.
Now, if she has been misquoted, or if the media truly twisted her words out of context, then I'll apologize. But I'm assuming the quote is correct, and I don't like it one bit.
She never said propaganda, she was referring to using her to boost morale. She was saying that they could've used the rescuers or others to do that. You guys are making a big deal out of nothing.
First of all, what's wrong with that?
Second, she indicated that she wasn't pleased with the use of the video of her rescue. That's the facts. I am baffled by why she could possibly be displeased with boosting the troops morale. Further, she can't use the video as the focus of "boosting morale", because most of the troops in the field heard about it before they ever saw it.
Her rescue, if anything, is what boosted morale; not a video of the rescue.
Look, dude, I'm not upset at her, per se. I just wish that she would have been mindful of what she said to the media. It may have been inadvertant, but she threw a huge amount of "red meat" the liberal press by even intoning that the Pentagon had done something inappropriate vis-a-vis showing the video of her rescue.
Jesse Jackson: Bush Selling War, Hiding Casualties
So, the Slogan-master had this to say:
"[Jackson] mentions that Jessica Lynch disputes the pentagon version of what happened to her – even though she was unconscious most of the time and doesn't remember, so who really knows what happened? – in order to point out that the Pentagon is trying to give the Iraq war an "image.""So, you can believe what you want to believe. I just wish that Jessica would clarify what she said. If they (the liberals) are taking her out of context, than she should be the ones that clears it up...not you. If, however, she meant what she said, then I would tell her to respect the troops that are still in the field and keep her comments to herself.
That's exactly my point. She said they were using her for morale. The evil liberal media then shortens that to "Army used me", quoting her out of context, and then claims she angrily said it, and you guys suck it up, hook, line, and sinker. Can't you check the facts before you believe everything the liberal media says?
Second, she indicated that she wasn't pleased with the use of the video of her rescue. That's the facts. I am baffled by why she could possibly be displeased with boosting the troops morale.
Because they portrayed her as the hero, instead of others. And that has caused many to hate her, and she is hurt by that.
Further, she can't use the video as the focus of "boosting morale", because most of the troops in the field heard about it before they ever saw it.
I think there's no doubt that the video was used to boost morale (which isn't a bad thing, by the way).
Her rescue, if anything, is what boosted morale; not a video of the rescue.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Look, dude, I'm not upset at her, per se. I just wish that she would have been mindful of what she said to the media.
She's 20, just two years out of the public schools, she's no presidential candidate who would know better how to handle the evil media.
It may have been inadvertant, but she threw a huge amount of "red meat" the liberal press by even intoning that the Pentagon had done something inappropriate vis-a-vis showing the video of her rescue.
Baloney! The liberal press twists everything anyone says. We shouldn't shut up because we're afraid of the liars. We should keep speaking the truth.
Who doesn't throw them meat. They lie about everyone.
Jesse Jackson: Bush Selling War, Hiding Casualties So, the Slogan-master had this to say:
Who cares what he says.
So, you can believe what you want to believe. I just wish that Jessica would clarify what she said.
It looks to me that the only people taking the media's version of events are the Lynch-beashers, so I don't think she has to do anything other that what she had planned. That's how the media generates stories, they lie and then make those they lied about to come out again and explain, and then attack them again. No, she should let the good people hear her, and just let the liars and the bashers keep hating her, because that's all they will ever do anyway no matter what she tries to do to placate them, as we've seen with her deferring the hero label. The bashers have been wanting that for 7 months and when she finally does it, they attack her for it.
If they (the liberals) are taking her out of context, than she should be the ones that clears it up...not you. If, however, she meant what she said, then I would tell her to respect the troops that are still in the field and keep her comments to herself.
There's no way I would ever recommend that good people keep quiet in the public forum for fear of the liars. We should keep speaking the truth despite our lying enemies. When we hide in a corner with zippers over our mouths for fear of the media, then the evil media has won.
Well, I look at it this way.
Here we have a young woman who has been through quite a horrific ordeal; is going to have to carry around the emotional and physical scars for the rest of her life. She is probably going to have continuing, and no doubt expensive, medical needs for years to come. She's been pulled and used by all sides for their specific agendas, so I'll give her a pass on a measly $1MM book deal.
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