Posted on 11/08/2003 6:48:09 AM PST by 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.
You've been exposed.
You forgot to mention the part where she said the military used her. I stated she bad-mouthed the military on another thread and some people jumped down my throat. But I calls 'em as I sees 'em.
Yep!
I don't think the intention was to mislead anyone. The military members that went into the hospital to "rescue" a POW did not know what they would encounter. To have pursued the rescue in any other manner would have been a mistake...of course, this is IMO.
Wow you sees 'em through a selfish lens, IMO. Please tell me what is so wrong about Jessica's rescue being filmed.
Should the little diva Babs in the making have had a better close up.
Were talking totally superficial now, forget the reality about using the film for future training exercises.
It's her parents' fault? LOL!
Who said anything about 'fault' and how the hell am I supposed to know if it was? Are you claiming the parents of a typical 19-year-old girl would have no influence on her in a situation like this?
There's not one thing wrong with it in my eyes. If she was that camera shy, she shouldn't have written a book or appeared in an interview on national TV. If she felt she was used by the military, she'll feel she was groped and raped by the media by the time it's over.
Of course, you're right.
I'm still hoping that somehow all these statements are being misreported, but I'm very disappointed with Pfc Lynch. She's allowing the media to use her as a tool to beat the military.
Our military boys and girls are still fighting in Iraq, and morale is an important ingredient in their safety.
This bad-mouthing of the military is completely uncalled for and unnecessary.
And I suppose you believe that the Jews caused 9/11 as well.
She forgot what duty, honor, country meant once she saw those dollar signs.
And the same can be said about many on this thread.
Posted on 04/02/2003 8:40 PM MST by John H K
Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.
Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah.
"She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."
Lynch was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the official said, noting that initial intelligence reports indicated that she had been stabbed to death. No official gave any indication yesterday, however, that Lynch's wounds had been life-threatening.
Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined, and that further information will emerge as Lynch is debriefed. Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they said, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed. Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation.
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now ask yourself why government officials (not necessarily from the pentagon) would leak battlefield intelligence to the press which came from sources "whose reliability has yet to be assessed." ?
what purpose could anonymously releasing that misleading information (with disclaimer attached so that you can later dodge responsibility) possibly serve?
this is textbook washington propaganda.
Bullseye!
Of course I can debate. The real question to be debated, IMO, is if Jessica Lynch ever exits off the Babs Streisand interstate she seems to be at the present time putting the floor to the metal.
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