Jessica Lynch agrees to $1M book deal

AP | 9/02/03 | HILLEL ITALIE

[AmericanInTokyo]

Interesting deductions you have made.

[Silas]

A young girl who uses her body/looks to stay alive is one thing. That is understandable and a tragedy.

But to then sell out for $1 million? I stand by my statement. Whore.

[HairOfTheDog]

If you think the highlight of her life is that she was raped and tortured and can now score again, I stand by my statement. Disgusting.

The other heros you find more worthy she also mourns. They were her friends, not yours.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

So she gets one million for writting a book about things she doesn't remember happening. I thought the going rate for one of those books was eight million.

[Silas]

If you think the highlight of her life is that she was raped and tortured and can now score again, I stand by my statement.

Why are you trying to put statements in my mouth? I never said it was the highlight of her life or anything like that. I said it was a tragedy. You seem to have some sort of agenda.

We must separate what happened on the battlefield, which she had no control over, and what she is doing now.

[HairOfTheDog]

And there is nothing ~at all~ improper about her coming home and writing a book. Many others have done the same. The stories of the survivors tell the story for those who did not make it. Don't make it sinister. It isn't.

[Marie Antoinette]

I'm with you, I find many of the comments disgusting. Thanks for standing up, I'm usually "outta there" PDQ on these threads.

Count me in the "Happy for Jessica" camp.

[HairOfTheDog]

Count me in the "Happy for Jessica" camp.

Good! - Glad to see it.

At least there are some who remember that she is on ~our~ side.

[cincinnati65]

The only way that I can reconcile your characterization, is if she were thinking about how she was going to profit from her torture as it was occurring. Profiting from it after the fact is making lemonade out of lemons. Not exactly seemly, but not quite at the level you describe.

[cincinnati65]

Sorry, that should have been directed toward Silas.

[HairOfTheDog]

I think you should re-read exactly who on the thread has been describing her in unseemly terms..... certainly not me.

[HairOfTheDog]

Roger - with you now ;~D

[BJungNan]

Will she share it with those that rescued her? Would you?

[SkyPilot]

I thought she suffered from acute amnesia?

[wtc911]

You are not alone. The mean-spirited little whiners should just stfu. Lynch enlisted, stayed the course through training and deployment and was one of the troops these loud-mouths so patriotically support. She turned down the film money to tell her own story. I say good for her and the hell with the whiners.

[Nam Vet]

"A Bronze Star and a million bucks for what? A private who got captured because of incompetence???"

I have also felt uneasy, to say the least, about all this hoopla. I think back to the scores of wounded I saw in '67 and '68. They would have been happy JUST being decently welcomed home by Americans. Something strikes me as drastically out of kilter here.

Nam Vet

[HairOfTheDog]

Why would you assume the rescuers wouldn't have their own story to tell, and their own book deal, if they wished? Jeepers I can't imagine who in her situation would not write a book. Hers is a great American story.... the story of one person and the circumstances that drew the eyes of an entire nation for a few moments. Like Lisa Beamer. Stories like theirs sit on best seller lists for a few moments, and then fill libraries, little snapshots in the life of a country.

Why is everyone feeling so victimized by Jessica, as if she represents something insidious? Her rescue, and the others was a bit of good news in the middle of a week in the war when WE ALL wanted some good news, after seeing our captured soldiers on TV and the media was speaking of quagmire.

Jessica is just one soldier, with one story to tell.... She had a spotlight find her, she didn't seek it out. Sometimes people end up in situations that capture for a moment, the nation's attention.

Her getting a story deal doesn't demean the sacrifice of any other soldier who ever served or lost anything.... it opens the door to them and others to add a story their own.

[HairOfTheDog]

I say good for her and the hell with the whiners.

:~D

I have already said the first, I am trying to manage the second.

[Jim Scott]

Jessica is just one soldier, with one story to tell.... She had a spotlight find her, she didn't seek it out. Sometimes people end up in situations that capture for a moment, the nation's attention.

Her getting a story deal doesn't demean the sacrifice of any other soldier who ever served or lost anything.... it opens the door to them and others to add a story their own.

Excellent comments that I wholeheartedly agree with. Those calling this modest young woman a 'whore' appear to be bitter and just looking for something to be angry about. Jessica Lynch isn't a proper target for that kind of mindless animus.

She never held a real press conference, never said anything to the media except to thank the American people for their support and she rode, smiled and waved in a brief hometown parade that was held for her by neighbors and friends. Jessica Lynch didn't say she wants to be an actress, model or TV anchorwoman. She isn't posing in Playboy. She didn't ask for her medals - or anything else. Jessica was a novelty; a young woman in the military near a combat zone who was inadvertently injured, captured and ultimately rescued. Most people understand that. She made it out alive and because she's young and pretty the media jumped on her 'story' and made her a minor celebrity, none of which Jessica Lynch asked for or exploited.

Now, she has an opportunity to make some money by telling her 'story' to a professional writer. No movie, no TV shows, no lecture circut, no magazine interviews, just a book about her life and probably a very brief chapter about her capture and rescue. The publishers will pay her $500,000. for this. She has every right to accept it but I doubt she sought out the deal. Calling her 'greedy' and a 'whore' may make some bitter people feel better for a millisecond but they are wrong and their mean-spirited labels won't stick to Jessiac Lynch. She's not really a hero, just a pleasant, unassuming young woman with a story to tell, if anyone cares to read it. If not, that's O.K. too. The anger and name-calling aimed at Jessiaca Lynch on this thread is inappropriate.

[FreedomCalls]

More like she was tortured and raped.

There is no evidence of that. She has never claimed that either of those happened to her. I believe the Ba'athist goons' preference would have been to rape the men prisoners anyway.