Jessica: Army used me

NY Daily News ^ | November 7, 2003 | CORKY SIEMASZKO

[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.

[petitfour]

The more I think about this, I can understand how a girl who answers, "I didn't shoot nothing," when asked about her Rambo actions, would feel used by the US military. She joined the Army in order to one day be able to go to college. She was sent into a war zone with an inoperable weapon (which probably saved her life because I bet those Iraqis would have taken her out if she had been firing on them). She should never have been there. She was rescued by an elite rescue squad, and she probably wasn't real familiar with their tactics and actions. Those folks are highly specialized with each member trained to do certain jobs, including providing the best medical care on a battlefield. They are the ones you want to come get you when you're down. These folks came in there after her and faced no fight. They were potentially rescuing a victim of some type of biological disease/virus that could kill even them. The military had to exercise extreme caution because she could have been a carrier, left to be rescued. And this is sounding like some thriller novel, but it was a possibility. Maybe Jessica did not like the overly cautious treatment. Maybe Jessica's family was told things by Army personnel, and they later learned the stories were false. Even Army personnel read newspapers and get stories wrong. Jessica is YOUNG, and she has been through a tremendous ordeal, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Hopefully, she will gain some wisdom from all of this. Someone has mistakenly told her to tell all now while it is still marketable. I think she will change her views over time.

Imagine women in combat in Vietnam. Imagine women in combat in WWII. Do we not have any real men in DC anymore? I would like to hear some of the male politicians say, "I wouldn't send my daughter into combat, and I wouldn't send yours." And hogwash on any feminists saying that women should have the same opportunities as men. How many women market themselves as mercenaries without the promise of a college education and "seeing the world"??????

[TheCrusader]

"I expect her not to publicly bash the Army for promoting the very incident from which she is now profiting"

That's b.s., she never asked for the propaganda and promotion, and if she decided to play the game and live the lie she could have made out far better. She was lying on a hospital bed in Germany, broken, battered and paralysed, while all this "Hero" $hit was coming down back home without her knowledge.

She doesn't want to live her life in a lie or in a false state of adulation for something she didn't do. This is a remarkably mature and humble young lady. And she isn't trashing the Army, she's trashing ALL the idiots out there who wanted to make something out of nothing, and turn her into a feminist icon. She just wants to tell the truth and be herself; she obviously has a strong moral code that has been lost on most Americans of this generation. Jessica Lynch is just a kid who is being grabbed at from all sides of our greedy society, by everyone who wants to USE her for their own selfish purposes. She is showing me that her faith and personal integrity are stronger than the jerks who want to either immortalize or destroy her. JESSICA LYNCH HAS WON MY RESPECT.

[browardchad]

That stuff was contained in the Washington Post story that came out just after the firefight, but before she was rescued.

Exactly right. There were no sources mentioned.

Being a liberal requires selective amnesia, since some months ago the left was saying the rescue was bogus, and she was in no danger.

I originally thought the Pentagon kept Lynch under wraps due to her precarious mental state. Now I wonder if they kept her incommunicado because they realized she could potentially undermine the morale of the troops during the war.

Basically, the girl would be much better off keeping her mouth shut, since her lack of sophistication is making her a pawn for the media -- but the lure of money and fame has apparently trumped integrity.

[ClancyJ]

Gee, Jessica, how about some thanks for them risking their lives to get you out of there.

Such an ungrateful idiot. I have lost respect for her. Maybe our soldiers would have found more favor if one or two had died moving her out of there.

[presidio9]

Whoa Whoa Whoa! Read The entire thread before you accuse people of things. I never "bashed" PFC Lynch.

[conserv13]

"She's a 20 year girl from West Virginia, I think she knows how the big media game is played."

[abner]

Diane Sawyer... I wonder how much editing has been done to this interview to make the Army look bad???

[TheCrusader]

"Her whole family sucked all that media attention right up. They didn't even attempt to keep things private."

You gotta be $h-tting me, right? The media circus invaded her hometown like an army of poop-seeking flies and her parents stood there for a few minutes and answered a few questions before boarding a plane for Germany to see Jessica. Her mom said almost nothing at all, her dad spoke a few bashful words in a most humble fashion. The media circus hung around for days trying to make something out of nothing. I think Jessica Lynch and her entire family are outstanding Americans. Humble, honest and full of faith. Jessica has told all parties involved in trying to use her to go take a flying leap. GOD BLESS HER.

[HairOfTheDog]

The pentagon did release the story that was printed... So I hear. I honestly don't think the she-rambo element of the story got as much play as the sweet girl next door damsel in distress element of the story did, the point is the story got HUGE without Jessica making it huge.

These are excerpts. Be careful about excerpts from books that can place more weight on the pentagon statement than she intended. I am SURE the media is also mentioned in overblowing her story. Perhaps this article didn't want to focus on that.

With regards to her family and Jessica cooperating.... When they are parked on your lawn 24-7 and you handle the media with any more class than her family has... I think you will have room to talk. I respected them, her family and her brother are on our side.

These are Americans, this family. This soldier is an American who has not acted in any way to dishonor herself. It should NOT take more than that to gain her some simple respect.

[HairOfTheDog]

You gotta be $h-tting me, right? The media circus invaded her hometown like an army of poop-seeking flies and her parents stood there for a few minutes and answered a few questions before boarding a plane for Germany to see Jessica. Her mom said almost nothing at all, her dad spoke a few bashful words in a most humble fashion. The media circus hung around for days trying to make something out of nothing. I think Jessica Lynch and her entire family are outstanding Americans. Humble, honest and full of faith. Jessica has told all parties involved in trying to use her to go take a flying leap. GOD BLESS HER.

Yes.... Thank you!

[winker]

Beginning to sound like all we did was save a liberal shill for future trashing of the Country! Sure hope not! Just goes to show ya what happens when you hang around with managed news media types.

[TheCrusader]

"The problem here is that she's blaming to wrong people for all the media attention. It's not the pentagon's fault, it's the media and her family's fault."

Face the facts, the Pentagon had the film rolling and the special effects sparkling, (the Marines firing into the night at nothing). They gave the media the film footage of the "rescue", replete with a staged "battle" of tracers slicing through the night air. I am a STAUNCH conservative and Bush supporter, but for chrisakes give this girl some credit for telling the truth.

[ClancyJ]

So, in your opinion, it's ok for the Government to lie to it's citizens as long as someone benefits financially

Well, you know, they had a meeting about that and Sec. Rumsfeld discussed with the President how they could manage some good press from a woman POW. It was not a snap decision because I hear that Bush called in Cheney and Rice to get their input.

Finally it was decided that - yes - release the film. If they did not, the media would probably claim that our boys destroyed the hospital as they got her out.

I know - we just can never believe this administration - they seem to always seek to make their jobs so much easier, to please all members of the U.N., to pacify the press. You know sometimes the war just has to go on the back burner since so much time has to be spent on the lies.

[RicocheT]

I agree with post 42 on the Jessica Lynch story. She has gone through way too much to expect her to be able to handle the media manipulation. I wish she and her family had shut the door on ABC, but someone dangled that book $ and it was hard to pass on.

Sgt. York of WWI handled it better, but he was age 29 and not severely wounded. Plus, there wasn't the circus of TV and media back then. Audie Murphy did some movies. I can't figure how he relived the hell he had experienced, considering he had what we would now call post traumatic stress disorder. He slept with a loaded .45 for years and had a lot of emotional ups and downs. Living after being named a hero is no picnic.

[honeygrl]

I seem to remember several press conferences from her dad. Not just the one before getting on the plane to go see her.

[oceanview]

she certainly deserved to be saved, she's our soldier after all. but this criticism of the "filming" is totally out of line, and she does not understand the media is using her to trash the military.

this is going to cost her book sales, and I for one won't be watching her movie now.

[HairOfTheDog]

Relax. I simply replied to post 1. That's you. And pinged some other people who haven't even been on the thread.

[#3Fan]

An article consisting of a manipulation of her by ABC, distorted by the Daily News... and people are drawing conclusions from it as if it were gospel.

Exactly. There are four threads describing her ability to survive today and yet this one thread based on shoddy reporting gets all the bashers to flock to it so they can bash this POW some more. They believe what they want to believe and the press in in full "attack Lynch"/"attack the military" mode and these bashers eat it up with no questions asked.

[onedoug]

"Me thinks the lady doth protest too much."

[Coop]

However, in her effort to deflect the praise of being a hero, she necessarily made it out like the Pentagon had some elaborate plan to "use" her and her rescue. And that's just wrong for her to do. In fact, one could argue that her statements about not knowing "why they would film [the rescue]" gives an impression that they didn't need to film the rescue. The comments suggests somehow that the rescue was "staged" (or some other word that denigrates what those Special Forces and Marines did). That is an insult to those brave men that rescued her.

Well said!