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.

[Dane]

Don't worry, we'll get him with the strawberries (lol). Cheers

Nah those strawberries are for Ted Kennedy's good buddy, John McCain.

[jethropalerobber]

Just think you have debated much better in the past...

do you have a link for that? :^)

[independentmind]

Dropping to your knees in fear without managing to fire your weapon as hostiles take out your friends all around you, is not particularly ennobling.

With all due respect, JasonC, she did the best she could do under the circumstances. Nobility, I'm sure, wasn't on her mind. That's only one of many differences between men and women.

[Dane]

Just think you have debated much better in the past. I often look to see where you are in the forum because you have some great lines that make me laugh or think

Nice try B1, but this has me pissed off, especially her snubbing the Iraqi who helped save her and her getting all so upset over her rescue being filmed.

[jethropalerobber]

good day all...
nice sparring with you.

[JasonC]

I don't know if she did the best she could have, and perhaps she doesn't think she did. I do know that there but for the grace... Man or woman. So I don't condemn her for it, but I can also understand her not wanting others to dwell on it or pretend it was more on her part than it was.

[Burkeman1]

I don't know the particulars of what you guys are talking about (and when it comes down to it this Lynch story "controversy" is nothing in the grand scheme of things). I bet you would agree with 99% of what JasonC and sandlady say on any other issue.

They are not Kennedy staffers or Liberals.

[Burkeman1]

He is actually quite insightful and funny if you follow his posts.

[BSunday]

There's a UCMJ article pertaining to us servicemen and women publicly criticizing our leadership.

[arete]

And I suppose you believe that the Jews caused 9/11 as well.

You've really gone off the deep end with that one, Sparky.

Richard W.

[Barnacle]

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

High ranking officer replies, “No, no Jessica, it wasn’t like that at all. Here, take this medal and shut up. You are our poster child for women in combat.”

Now I thought, “The Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Army of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service…” not for getting captured, raped and rescued.

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

Oh well, what will we do now that Jessica Lynch told the truth?

Well, we have a Pfc. Jessica Lynn Nicholson. She’s just like Jessica Lynch, but with extra letters in her name. Most people would never notice the difference. She likes to wrestle guys too.

Now, if only we could get her to wrestle a suspected terrorist to the ground, we could give her a medal and have our. .

New Poster Child for Women in Combat

*************************************************************************************

First high school girl, “I’m going into the Army infantry after graduation.”

Second high school girl, “Aren’t you afraid of being captured and raped in that most unflattering way like Jessica?”

First high school girl, “Oh, I’m not going to be like the “old” Jessica. I’m going to be just like the new one.”

*************************************************************************************

You see folks, problem is solved. Sign your daughters up today so they can “Be All That They Can Be”,
“A Jessica of One”, and all that.

[JasonC]

"Soldiers do not speak publicly about the President and they respect authority. She is giving an opinion on a subject she is neither qualified or paid to speak on."

What on earth are you talking about? She hasn't said word one about the president. You can respect authority all you like, but that does not allow you to look the other way when things you know aren't true are said about you.

If some military official or even just some media report says "she fought until out of ammo" and she knows for a fact it is flat not true, then either she says so or she lies about her own valor. Nothing can require that of her - it is her honor.

It is far more important not to lay claim to undeserved honors - which wrongs fellow soldiers who do deserve theirs - than to correct such a mistake by a superior, in which there is no dishonor at all. The mistake is not hers.

If it was only a media misreport, or an off the record preliminary indication that turned out to be false, then those involved just say "so we were wrong about that, sorry, we got bad info at the time", and that is the end of that.

And nobody on earth is more qualified to say whether or not she fought before being captured that she is. It is absurd, the imaginary charges people here are pulling out of the air. All that happened is her story was hyped beyond what the truth can bear and she has corrected that. Good for her. And shame on anybody who faults her for it, as though she should have lied about it instead.

[mass55th]

"I give her great credit for honesty."

If you read my comments on these threads, the bulk of my complaint with PFC Lynch is her saying the military used her by filming her rescue. If she wanted to set the record straight about what she remembered of her experience, all she had to do was issue a statement to the press. She didn't have to write a book. All that will do is reap more press & camera attention on her...something she claims she is uncomfortable with. If she didn't like having her rescue filmed by the Army, how can she like being on the cover of a book, or seen in an interview on national television? And more than likely, there will be more TV & public appearances by her. I smell a little hypocrisy there. It's call the mighty dollar.

[JasonC]

What the heck are you talking about? If someone says "she fought back" and she knows it is false, you think she is supposed to lie about it to save their face?

That's not loyalty, it is flat dishonesty. Dishonesty in claiming honors you don't deserve is dishonor. She is following a much higher value, and one of much greater consequence to her fellow soldiers, than the precious media reputation of her holy superiors. All honors truly earned by others are cheapened by any dishonesty about one's own deserts. She could not possibly let such statements about her conduct stand, uncorrected, when she knew them to be false.

[JasonC]

Exactly.

[mass55th]

"Richard W."

Close the door on me Richard, but don't close it on me Dick!!

[Burkeman1]

Dude, you are not one to talk, IMO.

Yep- you are right. I have said some things that I wish I could take back on this site. You however, haven't said anything that needs to be taken back- until this thread. Your opponents are not left wingers on this thread.

[JasonC]

"her saying the military used her by filming her rescue"

Reading the article, I find her saying she doesn't know why they did that. I find the rest from the media type writing it, not from her. But that is a quibble, since the military obviously did use her whole story for public relations.

And that public relations use included statements about her conduct - in the media, attributed to "government officials" - that she knew to be false. The correction of which was therefore a duty, and not a pleasant one. "They are calling me a hero, I wasn't a hero, I flinched" is not a pleasant thing to have to say.

I do not in the least blame her for not liking the element of hyped dishonesty in the whole public relations side of the entire affair. Graditude for her rescue and to those who helped her are duties too and she has expressed them. It is not a duty to sit still to be lied about, or to pretend one likes it.

One might think she had already put up with rather enough, without all the gratuitous insult she is offered here. Some here pretend at least they are conservative. Some are even free enough of PC to notice that the whole affair involves make believe about women in the military that is make believe.

So where is the slightest hint of chivalry toward this woman's tribulations? Your political party is notched ever so slightly, you think, because some hype it might have backed has been deflated? Poor you. Cry me a river. How ever can being nearly killed, and lied about into the bargain for PC spin purposes, not to mention slandered for later daring to tell the truth about your own failings, compare?

So she didn't belong in a combat zone. Probably the most realistic lesson. The next would be that to expect chivalry even from self-described conservatives when they think their own political bacon is in the slightest way involved, is rather too idealistic for the present state of American conservatism.

Qualified with all possible kudos for others here who have seen what is going on and know better.

[Big Horn]

Where would she be if she hadn't been rescued. The people that rescued her stuck their necks out to save her.
She may have lost my book sale. I would think she would be grateful to be home and alive.

[mass55th]

"The correction of which was therefore a duty, and not a pleasant one."

For being such an unpleasant duty, she managed to get 224 pages in her book.