Jessica Lynch condemns Pentagon

BBC ^ | Friday, 7 November, 2003, 18:11 GMT | BBC

[KQQL]

US woman soldier who shot to fame after being taken prisoner during the Iraq war has accused the military of using her for propaganda purposes.

A video of US commandos carrying a badly injured Private Jessica Lynch from a Nasiriya hospital was released at the height of the conflict.

But the 20-year-old criticised the release of false information about her capture by Iraqi forces.

She also said there was no reason for her rescue to be filmed.

In her first interview about what happened to her, the former prisoner-of-war told ABC television that medical reports indicated that she had been raped.

They used me as a way to symbolise all this stuff. It's wrong.

She said she had no recollection of the attack. "Even just the thinking about that, that's too painful," she told interviewer Diane Sawyer.

Miss Lynch, who was serving as an Army supply clerk, suffered broken bones and other injuries when her convoy was ambushed after taking a wrong turn near the Iraqi town of Nasiriya on 23 March.

The Pentagon initially put out the story that Private Lynch - a slight woman who was just 19 at the time - had been wounded by Iraqi gunfire but had kept fighting until her ammunition ran out.

But she told Sawyer that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that her gun had jammed during the chaos.

"I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do," she said.

"I did not shoot - not a round, nothing. I went down praying to my knees - that's the last thing I remember."

Initial reports also suggested that Miss Lynch had been abused after she came round in the hospital. She says that again was untrue - there was no mistreatment, and one nurse used to sing to her.

She said she was grateful to the American special forces team which rescued her but, asked whether the Pentagon's subsequent portrayal of her rescue bothered her, she said: "Yes, it does. They used me as a way to symbolise all this stuff. It's wrong."

Injuries

Miss Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medals while still in hospital in Washington DC.

Months later, she is receiving treatment for her extensive injuries.

Earlier this week, it emerged that medical evidence suggested that Miss Lynch had been raped during her capture.

The assault was revealed in extracts from Miss Lynch's authorised biography - I am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story - to be released by publisher Alfred A Knopf on Tuesday.

[TrueBeliever9]

as i asked another poster, why does it bother you when a citizen calls the government on its lies? Jessica Lynch is seriously affecting the soldiers in the field who are risking their lives and dying everyday! AND THAT BOTHERS ME! Obviously, you do not have anyone close to you serving or your would know this!

[Cicero]

Once again, I would remind Freepers that Jessica Lynch isn't speaking here; the BBC is speaking. And yesterday it was some other liberal spin source.

Maybe she is naive and foolish for saying things that can be spun like this. But she is NOT attacking the Pentagon. She is merely telling the truth as she sees it while being interviewed by expert spinmeisters who want to put words into her mouth.

She is way over her head.

[linn37]

I'm disappointed that she can't be grateful that she was rescued and that a woman who's making big bucks off her capture and possible torture has the nerve to claim that the government used her.

[pepperhead]

Why was she kept in an apparently unguarded hospital? Why was she not subjected to the ill treatment the other POWs were?

She was a white woman who couldn't walk so why guard her. Maybe they wanted her to get well enough to use her as propaganda.

Saddam "You cowardly Americans, sending women to fight."

Saddam "We got your white girl and you can't have her back."

Or maybe officer in the Iqaqi army had a heart and decide to save the girl from his soldiers.

[WackyKat]

there are REAL men who would disagree that the Pentagon is a propaganda machine although they are out cutting trees and smacking around the spotted owl right at this moment.

It's a good thing that they're loggers, since both they and you are ignorant of the fact that propaganda is a vitally important part of war.

[tallhappy]

I think she was given her talking points by ABC as a condition of her deal: They're paying her, and she's saying what they want to hear...

Yes.

[HarryCaul]

So if she was left for dead by her unit, that implies they moved on (probably a good decision if they were already running from an ambush in the first place).

So she gets left behind for dead, the ambushers also think she's dead (if they even check at all), the firefight moves elsewhere, and later someone comes by and finds she's alive. They take her to a doctor who does what he can for her. We don't really know what the elapsed time is here, and may not ever (I'd assume Lynch's estimation of the time would be shakey at best). Being Iraq, there's some Fedayeen thugs in the area, and they sit around the hospital with their "POW", but they aren't the same bunch that had the others from the convoy. They're not sure what to do with her, and don't even really guard her that closely (doctors tried to take her to US troops but got shot at). The Fedayeen split (or just fade into the woodwork) when it's obvious the US is getting close and the rescue team moves in virtually unopposed.

It's all theory, but it seems to fit...

[TrueBeliever9]

She agreed to meet him privately... she was just not ready for the huge public event that would have been.Please state your source for this statement. I would like to see it.

[WackyKat]

It is interesting to see how many phony conservatives now support big government, the trashing of the constitution, and a police state. The same people who were wildly supportive of Lynch when the story first broke, are now lining up to discredit and trash her. I had no problem. The story was too good to be true even by FR's fairy tale standards when it comes to the military. Nothing has changed just a bunch of people making fools of themselves.

What you said!

[TrueBeliever9]

I think she was given her talking points by ABC as a condition of her deal: They're paying her, and she's saying what they want to hear...

She has a handler...the conditions that come with the big bucks!

[somemoreequalthanothers]

If it is true that she criticized our military and did not meet with the Iraqi who helped her because she was "too busy", she will lose the good will of many of the American people. If this is really her disposition now, she needs to just go away.

[submarinerswife]

Read up on your WW2 history to know how the heros were made. To call me ignorant because I don't perscribe with your "evil military propaganda" theory proves that 60's throw backs have yet to recover from their drug haze.

[Dane]

And you think it would have been a 10 minute event with little stress. Do you know what the media looks like when they descend on a house for such an event? How many cameras? How many trucks? How many flash bulbs? You really believe this event would ramain small?

Oh yeah it would have been the Macy's Thanksgiving parade in Palestine, WV. They(press) were there anyway. She snubbed him, pure and simple.

Like I said before, I hope she takes the first exit off the Babs Streisand diva interstate she seems now to be on.

[nosofar]

How could anyone join the Armed Services,and not understand that the possibility exists that they may end up in a war situation ?

I've never been in the military, and only have second-hand info from my Dad who was in WW2 and the Korean War. I remember him saying that everyone was a soldier first. (Except for nurses, who still came under fire.) I guess things have changed in the modern military.

[sandlady]

"The Iraqi doctor is now saying that there was no sign of her being raped when she was brought to the hospital for treatment."

Be careful--if she was raped, you have no idea when it occurred.

[Iwo Jima]

I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that she was in two hospitals. Thanks for the links. I'll read them later. I've played too long, and I have chores to do or I'll be in big trouble.

[WackyKat]

I served in the military- 3/7th Cavalry.
Your military experience seems to be limited to cashing and spending your husband's paychecks and getting government "bennies"

[submarinerswife]

Things haven't changed that much have they? There are many who join for the career and pride that goes with it.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Now we need to trust the BBC's version of this interview?

I did detect a note of glee from the BBC in this article.

[sandlady]

Her "story" isn't worth a book or a movie.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's the lawyer who cooperated with the movie-making, not Lynch.