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.
Not me, I hardly ever posted on the Jessica Lynch threads back in April.
The thing that miffed me was her, IMO, diva like behavior saying she didn't like her rescue being filmed.
Well tough luck, you're in the military. You are going to be filmed, especially for a POW rescue. There is no reason to moan about it on national TV to Diane Sawyer and indirectly make the DOD look bad and make Diane Sawyer all warm and fuzzy inside, IMO.
jethro, actual quote: "I don't know why they filmed it, or why they say the things they, you know, all I know was that I was in that hospital hurting. I needed help."
your initial response was so weak i thought you might like another crack at it. hint: start by explaining why you misstated what the young lady said, Dick.
Do you?
BFD, it would have taken an hour at most. It's not like she had to go to New York to meet him.
He was in her hometown and she snubbed him.
Of course she could have given an hour of her so precious time and we wouldn't be talking about it now.
And do you have a link for your quote in your reply #406?
...and she expressed thanks for it.
but for some reason you seem rather hung up on the hurt feelings of a certain iraqi lawyer (or was he a doctor?). someone close to your heart, Dick?
Huh, nice try at propaganda there jethro in your reply #401.
But where is the transcript of what the speaker at the podium actually said as those picture were shown.
You are strangely silent on transcripts as you are on links, such as the one you didn't provide in your reply #406 of this thread.
LOL! This coming from you is humorous. LOL!
but for some reason you seem rather hung up on the hurt feelings of a certain iraqi lawyer (or was he a doctor?). someone close to your heart, Dick
Yes she expressed thanks, but with a Clinonesque loathing of the military at the end of her "thanks", IMO.
Sorry Honey, but that's a big part of the reason you got rescued to begin with.
What is so humorous? Jethro didn't provide the link in his reply #406.
mention, from abcnews.com: "Lynch told Sawyer she does not remember seeing the lawyer, Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, who is the focus of a TV movie that is being made without her participation. But if he did help her, she said, she is grateful."
lol. Funny, never was part of the speel when I was in.
Did it ever occur to you that she is simply ashamed of having been captured? Particularly without managing to put up much of a fight? That having your shame broadcast to the entire world isn't particularly gratifying? That having complete strangers lie about it, pretend you did things you didn't, makes it worse rather than better?
Some people tried to make her some sort of heroine and it was a lie and she isn't playing along. Then they get mad at being reveal as liars in the matter. But that is their fault, not hers. She didn't ask for the lying myth-making treatment.
And no, it is not her duty to put up with being lied about for the good of media hounds or DOD flaks or women in the military boosters. On the contrary, to let stand accounts of heroism on her part that she knows to be false would be dishonorable on her part and insulting to the genuinely worthy.
I have no idea. They're taking snippets from a show with DS and Lynch which was snippets from an interview. That people assume there is no spin here baffles me. The title of the article tells me what to think of it as far as I'm concerned. My guess is that Lynch is embarrassed that some people think her heroic and the film of her rescue and following media frenzy perpetuates that. What I don't think is that she said anything intentionally derogatory towards the military.
Just a question, are you Jayson Blair, trying to get back in good graces with your old employer?
You haven't provided a single link for anything you've said--and I asked!!
I'm beginning to question your maturity.
unlike you, i've provided both on mutliple occasions on this thread.
i can't do *all* your homework for you, Dick.
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