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.
Huh I guess being rescued by American forces is the most shameful thing that could happen to an American. Tell that to the families of those who died in Iran trying to rescue the hostages back in 1980.
JMO, but you are the one who should be shamed, Ted Kennedy staffer.
The damn woman won't do what she is told by her spinmeister superiors, gosh darn it. Why she gives the whole army a black eye, because everybody knows those lying about her are the whole army or speak for it.
The reality is she is behaving with perfect honesty about what to her was a hardship and shameful but in no way heroic. Her integrity is a stake, because if she let the stories about her conduct pass she'd be endorsing them, and she knows they are not true, that her conduct was not heroic.
And their lies for political, public relations purposes simply don't fit. They just never bothered to find out first whether they were true. They were too quick to build her up into something she was not. When that falls apart on them, the messenger is her own honesty.
That puts her sense of honor in a fine light, their sense of truthfulness is a very poor light. They can't forgive her for that. She looks good, they look bad. They feel stung. It must be self-seeking on her part. Irrational, mean, ugly, you bet. But that is what is going on here.
JMO, but it looks like you got Jessica on your side.
You all are probably high fiving yourselves in the Ted Kennedy Senate office.
suit yourself.
Kennedy staffer, lol. I'm so conservative I make W look like a left winger...
Please tell me where in American history where a person has been castigated for being captured?
BTW, it is ironic that your above passage is from reply #444 of this thread. The # of days the Americans were held hostage in Iran.
good point.
the BBC article definitely mischaraterizes lynch's statements (the headline takes atonishing liberty in using the word 'condemn'). i always just assume people read past that stuff.
Yeah right, the next thing you tell me is that Mary Jo drowned herself on her voilition.
Never said it happened and never expect it to happen. It may be her feeling from the perspective...you know what--illogical people are a waste of debate effort. I'm through with you. I'll let JasonC give it a try.
Reply #450 should read,
Yeah right, the next thing you tell me is that Mary Jo drowned herself on her own voilition.
Sorry to leave the word "own" out. I know you demos are big on parsing.
And I should be concerned from one of Pat Buchanan's biggest supporters on FR, how?
Dude, you are not one to talk, IMO.
Sandlady are you chanelling Nancy Pelosi's office on this fair Saturday?
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