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.

[JesseHousman]

She's was a damned PFC supply clerk.

Who had as much business being placed in a combat zone as a pig being taken to church.

[submarinerswife]

Am I the only one who saw the two days of interview on Good Morning America this week? BBC is just repeating what I saw and heard her say on GMC.

[the_Watchman]

On the other hand, the story she is telling wouldn't be worth a movie.

[DustyMoment]

This story is taking some interesting twists and turns. For someone who claims she doesn't remember anything about the whole thing, how does a book of more than 20 paqes get published and a SeeBS-style made-for-TV movie get made that isn't all fiction?

If she witheld information from the military when she was being debriefed, she needs to be charged, court-martialed and convicted under the UCMJ.

This whole business is beginning to stink very badly and the real Jessica Lynch is starting to look 180 degrees different from the sweet, innocent, naive girl from WVA that we were initially introduced to. She's becoming something of a backstabbing shrew in the Hillary! style and America is being VERY put off by her.

[JesseHousman]

hey used me as a way to symbolise all this stuff.

And the muslims used her in the same way muslims use camels.

[LouD]

Who had as much business being placed in a combat zone as a pig being taken to church.

Please... Don't even get me started on that topic...

[TrueBeliever9]

As the mother of a Marine who would risk his life for Jessica I say "shame on you Jessica!" You are an ingrate! You are a disgrace! And your big smiling photo posted on AOL today with Dianne Sawyer made me sick!

[KQQL]

O.K here are other versions:

LYNCH SLAMS RESCUE 'LIES': SKY NEWS

Jessica Lynch Criticizes U.S. Accounts of Her Ordeal: NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/national/07LYNC.html?ex=1068872400&en=456dd578d7db397b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Lynch: Army ‘Used Me’: Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usjess083531398nov08,0,5698347.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines.

The Rambo who wasn't:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/09/1068243315124.html

Lynch calls her rescue public relations effort; London News
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2003/11/08/250316.html

Jessica Lynch Laments Military Portrayal (AP@Foxnews.com)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102460,00.html

[Fitzcarraldo]

Lynch has every right to stand before the world and say: "No comment".

She also has the duty to say: "I thank God and my fellow soldiers for being able to be here today - beyond those words there is the official record. Thank you for your time."

[HairOfTheDog]

I didn't see it.

BBC is repeating the parts that it wanted. Was this the tone of the two day interview?

[veronica]

Jessica was crazy to talk to Diane Sawyer, who set a trap and Jessica fell in. Now she's being used by the anti-war rats. Beware of network infobabes bearing overnights at The Plaza.

[xrp]

Maybe the US Army should dumb her back in Fallujah, but break her legs first.

[grania]

She wore the uniform and still has the medals. It's not only about her service and pride but that of every soldier who risked their life in her rescue and cared for her in the hospital. She owes them her life and tribute.

All of that is true. Yet, she's just a kid who couldn't afford college and signed up to be a supply clerk. One has to wonder if part of her recruitment involved being made to understand that she could end up in a war zone asked to shoot people.

I don't understand the refusal to meet the person responsible for saving her, either. Maybe that's hype, too? Maybe she did meet him privately, to avoid more exploitation? Have she and/or her family issued a "thank you"?

She's a kid, for heaven's sake, younger than the Bush twins. This is a bit of an issue. The rich kids go to college, the poor kids risk their necks defending the country to get a chance in life. I know it's a calculated risk, but I hate to see the very best our country has to offer dying in war.

[xrp]

err DUMP her back...not dumb.

[TrueBeliever9]

She's was a damned PFC supply clerk. WTF does she know? The decision to, and rationale for filming her rescue was way above her pay grade.

You would think she was U.S. Marine Corps Force Recon with her evaluation of the operation. Everything she says shouts that she doesn't have a clue! And, yes, some of the reporting early on was wrong - but that happens during war Jessica!

[Dallas59]

She may have a hard time handling fame. Her comments about the Pentagon may be just a "Leave Me Alone" type remark. She went to war, was shot, captured, raped and portrayed as a Rambo. She may just like to be left alone and her ordeal not dramatized.
Then again she may just be squirrelly.

[Rome2000]

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

Women are useless in combat and don't even understand the value of propaganda as a means to win a war.

I hope this numbskulls shocking betrayal of her country will serve as the catalyst to get women off the battlefield.

[Iwo Jima]

Doesn't it just infuriate you that someone (Rick Bragg???) has falsely told Jessica that she was raped, even sodomized? This reminds me of those pseudo-therapists who plant false memories of child abuse. Once you come to believe that you have been abused, I suspect that you suffer just as much as if you had.

Shame on those people who would do this to her just ao that they could "sex up" the story and get more $$$$$.

[HairOfTheDog]

She also has the right to speak and the country, like it or not, wants to hear from her. I do, if she wants. Her point of view is a valid one where she is concerned.

She has been made into a media event by others. Now LOTS has been said about her. Some complimentary... some untrue.... some insulting...

I would want to tell my story and I don't blame her for a minute.

If she didn't write a book many would hate her for that. The same ones maybe that hate her for writing... see... they don't hate her for what she did, but what she is.

[submarinerswife]

What you are reding with the BBC is what she said to Dianne Sawyer. Whether she thanked the soldiers and the Iraqi man ....I don't know. But it makes no differance if she did because she already slammed the military.