The Twists And Turns Of The Jessica Lynch Story
By David Huntwork (11/18/03)
With a book deal, multiple prime time interviews and a made for television movie under her belt, not to mention naked pictures of her frolicking with fellow soldiers in an army barracks safely stashed away in Larry Flynt’s vault, the most famous soldier of the Iraq war is definitely a unique figure. The petite soft-spoken Private First Class Jessica Lynch was a very unlikely person to emerge as a media celebrity and become a household name.
Tragically ambushed in the early days of the conflict, her lost unit suffered dreadful losses and she barely escaped with her life. The amazing rescue of this badly injured soldier helped rally the nation to victory and was a significant morale booster and propaganda victory for the military.
The initial reports after her rescue told of a ferocious firefight with Private Lynch unleashing a barrage of bullets at the enemy before she was taken prisoner. A Washington Post headline read “She Was Fighting to the Death” and then went on to quote U.S. officials as saying that, “PFC. Jessica Lynch fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army’s 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition.” She was quickly and roundly hailed as the shining example of what great soldiers females make. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a mere public relations blitz that is now universally regarded as fiction.
Her much heralded amnesia of both the firefight and subsequent imprisonment was refuted from the beginning by her father. “Her memory is as good as it was when she was home,” he said. “There really wasn’t no amnesia problems.”
So the amnesia victim received a million dollar book deal about a capture and experience that she does not remember. Ms. Lynch has also recently claimed she was too busy to meet with Mohammed al-Rehaief, the true hero of this story, who risked his life to provide the information used by American soldiers to rescue Lynch. A fictionalized account was portrayed as truth by the media and those who were a little too concerned about political correctness and the feminization of the military.
To her credit, Jessica Lynch has finally come forward to help expose the truth. "My weapon did jam and I did not shoot, not a round, nothing. I don't look at myself as a hero. My heroes are Lori (Private Lori Piestewa, who died in the ambush of Lynch's convoy), the soldiers that are over there, the soldiers that were in the car beside me, the ones that came and rescued me," she said.
So why has there been so much myth building around the capture of Pfc. Jessica Lynch? The Left likes to blame a Pentagon desperate for good news and a rally point during the frantic hard fought days of the Iraq war. The Right tends to suspect the “Pentagon feminists” and their media allies who are desperate to prove that women are just as “fierce” as their male counterparts and, despite much lower standards for their inclusion in the military, are not just baggage in the field but capable of holding their own in combat. They thought they had their proof in Private Lynch but the truth has melted the myth away.
All of this seems to come at the expense of those who served with distinction and exceptional bravery in combat in Iraq but whose recognition has been completely overshadowed by the media hype of her capture and rescue. This does not in any way detract from the fact that we as a nation were all extremely relieved at her safe return and tremendously proud of those who risked their lives to live up to the pledge of “no man (err…woman) left behind”.
It is ridiculous that we have allowed 105-pound females to be captured, beaten, raped, and sodomized in the name of social experimentation and equal opportunity. It is bad enough that we have male soldiers blown apart and killed. Do we really want to have our wives and daughters returned to us in body bags or with the often devastating physical and mental scars of war? What does it say about our society that we send women to fight our wars for us?
To raise these points and insist on the truth is to be politically incorrect and socially unacceptable. To not do so is irresponsible and a denial of common sense.
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