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.

[Iwo Jima]

1. She has no memory of it happening.

2. No one has said that it happened.

3. Three doctors who examined her upon arrival at the hospital say that there was no evidence that it happened. One doctor said that he wasn't looking for such evidence, one said that he specifically was, and I don't remember what the other said. These are the doctors who would have had to have written whatever is in the medical chart that Jessica has been told means that she was raped.

4. Jessica had her full uniform on with her flak jacket buttoned up when she arrived at the hospital. No torn clothes, etc.

Do you think that she was raped? If so, why?

Do you agree that taking the position that she was raped/tortured/sodomized if there is no evidence that that is so is terribly damaging to her and not looking out for her best interest?

[HairOfTheDog]

KEEPING HER MOUTH SHUT ALL THIS TIME?

Like some kind of devious plot?

She has been writing the book that the book deal was for and healing. She will have real experiences. We should not want her to varnish them for us nor expect the polish her story would have if Republican spinmeisters could get at it..... FReepers have been screaming for her to deny her own heroism since the beginning. They have been screaming for all this information from her and about her.

Now that she has.... they hate her for speaking. I respect her a great deal. It is unfortunate that she has come home to a country that has been picking over her bones... even on FR, where support for ALL our troops should be unwavering.

[Salvation]

Lynch better watch out -- OR keep her trap shut or she may be facing some charges from the Pentagon.

[Wondervixen]

If Jessica truly did criticize the Pentagon for "using" her, she ain't seen NOTHING compared to the c*cksuckers in the leftwing media!

[IronJack]

I have to admit my respect for Ms. Lynch has cooled considerably after these revelations. Surely she's smart enough to see that these statements will be fuel for the Left's fires. She complains about being a pawn for the Pentagon? How about being manipulated by the Hate America crowd?

Too bad, Jessica. Off to obscurity with ye!

[Iwo Jima]

See my post #61.

[MizSterious]

Thanks. Regarding the doctor, however, I still maintain he had reason to fudge the truth. The lawyer claimed he saw brutality, the doctor disagrees. The doctor could find himself in trouble for participating in or allowing war crimes if the lawyer is right--so is the doctor telling the truth?

[submarinerswife]

Picking over her Bones?????
Do you think we hate her because she is helpless? I don't hate her but I think that exploiting this the way she has deserves absolutely NO RESPECT. And if you do then fine. But I question your standards of respect.

[contessa machiaveli]

hopefully, the book will flop.

[pepperhead]

"They used me as a way to symbolise all this stuff," she told the ABC network.

And now she is being used by the left wing media. Poor girl.

[MizSterious]

See my post #67.

[verity]

US hero Private Jessica Lynch

Goddammit, she is NOT a hero!

[HairOfTheDog]

I haven't read the book and neither have you.... so I don't know yet how she comes to that conclusion... I had heard reports that medically, she had related injuries that were treated when she got back here.

The Iraqi doctors also said they could only get in to see her when the guards allowed them in.

In between, they acknowledged that she was abused in other ways. They just don't know about this one.

No I don't believe for a minute that Jessica would approve of or take part in a lie about something like this. It would take a HUGE leap for me to believe that she would push a lie about that. Not because one Iraqi doctor said he saw no evidence.

What is it about your agenda that makes you want to think she is lying?

[HairOfTheDog]

You own the word hero and pre-approve all of mine too?

[submarinerswife]

Did you start repecting her before or after she slammed the military?????

[Iwo Jima]

Jessica herself has said that she was not mistreated while in the hospital or at any time that she was aware of. She specifically said that she was not slapped as Mohammed the Lawyer said ("Unless while I was asleep, but then why do that?" is how I recall she put it).

I think that she did not meet with Mohammed because she knew that he had embellished his role and mistated her situation for personal reasons. Still, he did get her rescued, gotta give him that. Maybe he thought that he had to stretch the truth to get action.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes.... picking over her bones.

And I do respect her, and all who went over there on our side. That are still there.... And hearing how fickle support for the troops is back home. That part is unfortunate.

[FreeReign]

I don't understand the refusal to meet the person responsible for saving her, either. Maybe that's hype, too?

She refuses to meet the person responsible for saving her?? This seems hard to believe.

If true, probably bad advice from somebody. Maybe bad advice from the interests that are paying for her movie deal.

I can't imagine Hollywood making a movie and having some "upitty" Muslim/Arab guy be portrayed as a hero for helping out the cause of America and freedom.

Better this Arab guy remain on the Muslim plantation -- ya know what I mean?

[Wondervixen]

You need to understand her eye view of things. An Iraqi is an Iraqi...NONE of those doctors or staff were handing out puppies & cotton candy to the US Soldiers in there for fear for THEIR lives if Saddam's forces would have caught them giving aid & comfort above & beyond a normal hospital to their enemy.

Several of Jessica's cohorts DIED HORRIBLE DEATHS around her from torture and the doctors & staff had no choice but to stand by and let it go on...THEY didn't have the guns, the Fedayeen (sic) did.

Jessica had no idea that someone walked all those miles in the desert on her behalf. All she saw was US Troops bursting in to rescue her. It's tough to separate one Iraqi who did a good deed from the bad guys torturing & the poor staff having to turn their heads.

[FreeReign]

I think she should be given much less publicity and allowed to get on with her life.

That would be her choice and it appears that she has decided get more publicity.