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Jessica: Army used me
NY Daily News ^ | November 7, 2003 | CORKY SIEMASZKO

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.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: booktour; iamasoldiertoo; jessicalynch; liberalmedia
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To: TheCrusader
including conservative t.v. networks like FOX

I won't quibble with your characterization of FNC as conservative. But where's the other one?

81 posted on 11/07/2003 8:48:03 AM PST by AmishDude
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To: HairOfTheDog
Well, i guess I'll have to read the book to see how things are put together and what is said about who.
82 posted on 11/07/2003 8:48:12 AM PST by honeygrl (Surgeon General's Warning: This FReeper hasn't slept through the night in over a year.)
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To: honeygrl
You have the media invade your lawn and live there for weeks interested in your daughter who you are terribly worried about and interested in. And you handle it better.
83 posted on 11/07/2003 8:48:20 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: HairOfTheDog
Relax. I simply replied to post 1. That's you. And pinged some other people who haven't even been on the thread.

Since you were fooling around in the in box, would it have killed you to remove my name?

84 posted on 11/07/2003 8:48:24 AM PST by presidio9 (a new birth of Freedom)
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To: eastforker
You are right. Now you gotta wonder, what did she say and what did they say she said. She is either being missled or she's an ingrate.
85 posted on 11/07/2003 8:48:46 AM PST by AMNZ
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To: TheCrusader
JESSICA LYNCH HAS WON MY RESPECT.

Then I guess that makes up for her losing mine.

86 posted on 11/07/2003 8:49:25 AM PST by Coop (God bless our troops!)
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To: HairOfTheDog
"I see that on FR, there really is no way for this girl to be right. FR can bash her no matter what she does."

You are right, sir. Thise nitwits are pissed off at Jessica Lynch because she refused to play their game and dance for them. I'm a staunch conservative and I fully back President Bush. But this does it for me. I don't think I can come back in here and make another post. These folks are like vicious dogs, so highly trained in one way of thinking that even when their "side" is wrong they just make up some stupid excuse for overlooking the truth and keep right on rolling merrily along. I'm outta here.

87 posted on 11/07/2003 8:49:29 AM PST by TheCrusader
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To: TheCrusader
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.

Well, without the last sentence, that paragraph sounds like it came straight from DU.
88 posted on 11/07/2003 8:49:55 AM PST by honeygrl (Surgeon General's Warning: This FReeper hasn't slept through the night in over a year.)
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To: Hillary's Folly
Nasty? By telling the truth? That she can't understand why she's being portrayed as a hero, when in fact she merely survived? When all of her comrades died, and other came in gun blazing to rescue her?

You think Humility and Honesty are nasty traits?

There is no doubt propoganda was used around her rescue, and I personally am glad to see she is not letting all this hoopla go to her head, and is showing true respect for her fallen comrades. (I do have to question her $1MM book deal) But that's the only thing I can complain about.

Just imagine if she had been someone like a Bubba, or a Dachle or a Gore... and came back that way... she'd have spun her own press into that she single handedly won the war by now.
89 posted on 11/07/2003 8:50:15 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: presidio9
Sorry I pinged you so rudely.... I really am.
90 posted on 11/07/2003 8:51:08 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: Hillary's Folly
Oh dear me. How disappointing that this American hero would make such a shabby charge. Our government has not "used' her in any way. The print and broadcast media did though. They used her, badly, in my opinion. Especially, the British wire-services.
91 posted on 11/07/2003 8:51:24 AM PST by NetValue (They are not Americans, they're democrats.)
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To: joesbucks
The military is not going to say "The Washington Post is wrong." without conducting their own investigation to determine exactly what happened.

They are also not going to do a line-by-line refutation of every news story in America: "This was wrong." "This was right." "We don't know about this." "This is partially true, but we can't reveal any more until we can declassify the intel." . . .

92 posted on 11/07/2003 8:52:07 AM PST by AmishDude
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To: TheCrusader
Face the facts, the Pentagon had the film rolling and the special effects sparkling, (the Marines firing into the night at nothing).

Oh, I see. So not only was it staged, but the "Marines" were stupid enough to draw attention to themselves by firing at nothing? It's amazing anyone made it out of there alive.

93 posted on 11/07/2003 8:52:08 AM PST by Coop (God bless our troops!)
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To: mbynack
And thanks to the press, our sixties dinner hours were filled with body bags on t.v. This Jessica Lynch just lost my sympathy. Why the heck shouldn't the army do some p.r. while carrying out a heroic task? It's a win/win. And yes, that film made her a star, so suck it up, Private Lynch.
94 posted on 11/07/2003 8:52:09 AM PST by The Westerner
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To: HairOfTheDog
No problem. Just a simple request, that's all.
95 posted on 11/07/2003 8:52:21 AM PST by presidio9 (a new birth of Freedom)
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To: oceanview
"this is going to cost her book sales, and I for one won't be watching her movie now. "

I thought the movie was an unauthorized one? Did she change her mind or did they use the book to make the movie? (is the book even out yet?)
96 posted on 11/07/2003 8:52:26 AM PST by honeygrl (Surgeon General's Warning: This FReeper hasn't slept through the night in over a year.)
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To: joesbucks
The military provided a clear admonision that they hadn't verified exactly what happened.

It was the mass media that ran with this angle.

Look at the situation again:

Initial Report: The military said they believed she attempted to resist capture. The media follows up with various questions about the details of her capture. The Army spokesman said they don't know the details, but that all Army personnel are trained to fight the enemy (duh!).

Five minutes after that, the media splash screen is "SAVING PRIVATE LYNCH" and equally-overdramatic graphics.

Two days later, the Army briefs the press that her injuries may have been sustained during the vehicle accident.

Go back and review the military briefings. You will find that the Army tried to provide accurate information throughout. The hype that came from the story became a life of its own, period.

Further, I am not really sure what you want? Did you want the army to come out and say, "Our soldiers are cowards; Pvt. Lynch couldn't even get a shot off because the weapons we use jammed?"

Is Jessica Lynch a coward? I don't think so.
Did she get a shot off? Apparently not.
Did her weapon jam? According to her, but we didn't find out about that until 9 months later.

So, I am not really sure how you wanted this to go down, but that's the way it went down.

So when you say that "let it stand" just because it was "good PR" is really not intellectually honest.

It was/is good PR that she was rescued. She was rescued by brave men of the Special Forces and Marines. She tried to fight, but her weapon jammed.

All of that's true. All of that's good PR. All of which the Army should let stand.

Was she Rambo? No, but the Army never portrayed her as such. The only people that let the "Rambo" image stand was the mass media, because that image was getting veiwership.

97 posted on 11/07/2003 8:53:23 AM PST by mattdono (Big Arnie: "Crush the democrats, drive them before you, and hear the lamentations of the scumbags.")
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To: #3Fan
this one thread based on shoddy reporting gets all the bashers to flock to it so they can bash this POW some more.

Put me down as a first-time basher, please.

98 posted on 11/07/2003 8:53:45 AM PST by Coop (God bless our troops!)
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To: TheCrusader
I am sorry that people on all sides of this story want to use for their personal gain, or to trash you for not being what they want you to be, and for not saying what they want you to say. You are indeed brave, and you are in my prayers.

Very well said, Crusader, I am with you.

99 posted on 11/07/2003 8:54:17 AM PST by biffalobull
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To: TheCrusader
I don't think I can come back in here and make another post. These folks are like vicious dogs, so highly trained in one way of thinking that even when their "side" is wrong they just make up some stupid excuse for overlooking the truth and keep right on rolling merrily along. I'm outta here.

Later, Dude. Your six months here was a joy.

100 posted on 11/07/2003 8:55:03 AM PST by Coop (God bless our troops!)
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