Saving Private Lynch v5.2

[Rokenn]

For some reason this one strikes me as being pretty close to the truth...

Saving Private Jessica
By Nicholas D. Kristof
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist
Friday, June 20, 2003 Posted: 6:58 AM EDT (1058 GMT)

ASIRIYA, Iraq
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But I did find something related, here in the city where it seems (contrary to early Pentagon leaks) that Pfc. Jessica Lynch did not mow down Iraqis until her ammo ran out, was not shot and apparently was not plucked from behind enemy lines by U.S. commandos braving a firefight. It looks as if the first accounts of the rescue were embellished, like the imminent threat from W.M.D., and like wartime pronouncements about an uprising in Basra and imminent defections of generals. There's a pattern: we were misled.

None of this is to put down Private Lynch, whom her Iraqi doctors described as courageous and funny in the face of unrelenting pain; they said that she told Abdul Hadi, a hospital worker who had befriended her, not to take risks for her because he was needed by his 17 children. Ms. Lynch is still a hero in my book, and it was unnecessary for officials to try to turn her into a Hollywood caricature. As a citizen, I deeply resent my government trying to spin me like a Ping-Pong ball.

Staff members of Nasiriya's main hospital told me, as they have told other reporters, how surprised they were when military officers brought an American woman by ambulance. Private Lynch was unconscious, with broken legs, a head wound and other injuries, apparently sustained in a vehicle accident during a firefight.

"She was nearly dead," recalled Saad Abdulrazak, the deputy hospital director, who received her.

The Iraqi doctors were enchanted by this blonde warrior, who as she recovered spent her time alternately crying and joking. I don't know how much to credit the Iraqis' claims that they gave her the best room in the hospital, that they went to the market to buy orange juice for her with their own money, that they brought clothes so that she would have something to wear. But they didn't minimize Iraqi brutality. Indeed, they told of an execution of a handcuffed American male. (I've put a fuller account of this execution and of Ms. Lynch's saga at www.nytimes.com/kristoffresponds.)

The hospital staff also said that on the night of March 27, military officials prepared to kill Ms. Lynch by putting her in an ambulance and blowing it up with its occupants — blaming the atrocity on the Americans. The ambulance drivers balked at that idea. Eventually, the plan was changed so that a military officer would shoot Ms. Lynch and burn the ambulance. So Sabah Khazal, an ambulance driver, loaded her in the vehicle and drove off with a military officer assigned to execute her.

"I asked him not to shoot Jessica," Mr. Khazal said, "and he was afraid of God and didn't kill her." Instead, the executioner ran away and deserted the army, and Mr. Khazal said that he then thought about delivering Ms. Lynch to an American checkpoint. But there were firefights on the streets, so he returned to the hospital. (Ms. Lynch apparently never knew how close she had come to execution.)

By the morning of March 31, all of the Iraqi military at the hospital had fled. The hospital staff members said that they then told Ms. Lynch they would take her to the Americans the next day. That same night, the American special forces arrived.

"I met the Americans at the hospital entrance," said Dr. Hussein Salih, adding that Mr. Abdulrazak then led the Americans to Private Lynch. The staff members all said that there was no resistance, and that they welcomed the Americans.

Is this account the truth? I don't know, but every time I voiced skepticism, the doctors and staff all insisted: "Go ask Jessica! She'll tell you." The U.S. military has refused to make Private Lynch available, although that may be out of respect for her privacy; in any case, she is said to have no memory of her capture.

My guess is that "Saving Private Lynch" was a complex tale vastly oversimplified by officials, partly because of genuine ambiguities and partly because they wanted a good story to build political support for the war — a repetition of the exaggerations over W.M.D. We weren't quite lied to, but facts were subordinated to politics, and truth was treated as an endlessly stretchable fabric.

The Iraqis misused our prisoners for their propaganda purposes, and it hurts to find out that some American officials were misusing Private Lynch the same way.

[ 06-20-2003, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

[Iron_Ranger]

Here is what I think that happened-

Lynch's plane was shot down, her gun jammed, she was captured, she was rescued. I have yet to see conclusive proof the rescue was staged.

But, IMO, Lynch didnt do anything that any other soldier would have done that was outstandingly heroic.

[Rokenn]

ummm Lynch was not in a plane...
I'm not saying she wasn't heroic, but the government spinning her for all the propaganda it can is disgusting imo.

[Iron_Ranger]

Er, yeah sorry, vehichle? Helicopter? Anyway, I really doubt we will know the absolute truth anytime soon.

But it seems logical to use caution in a warzone. Even if the doctors 'welcomed them' and as far as we know they could be lieing as much as the goverments are. Why is there story so readily accepted?

[Sir Kenyth]

She was a POW who was lucky enough to be spared and then rescued. Only a truly vicious person could kill an injured helpless little girl like her. She looks young enough to be a child, and that probably saved her. The fact that her convoy was lost in the first place is what gets me! Those folks were abandoned, and then forgotten because of a breakdown. The officer drove them forward in what I consider a reckless fashion! I mean, when was he going to admit that he was lost! You don't just wander aimlessly behind enemy lines for cripes sake! Especially a convoy like that! A supply/maintenance convoy is a sitting duck! Small weapons, no armor, and slow vehicles laden with equipment and supplies! They should have stopped and made a defensive position until they got coordinates for themselves and their destination!

[ 06-20-2003, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Sir Kenyth ]

[Night Stalker]

I got to aggree with Rokken here. I find any Exloitumentry distastfull. Unfortunatly, all the reporting done on PFC Lynch has sounded like it was written by Steaven Spealburg. I found it very dishearting that huge attention was given to PFC Lynch, and not, say that other PFC that was taken prisoner from that convoy - can't even remember her name - the overweight, dark green soldier. Her whole story reeked of propaganda, a little shiny piece of something for the American public to believe in. Issued by the Brass, and amplified by the Media to Hollywood proportions. Now I don't know if report about her from CENTCOM were intentionally misleading or just Fog of War (still possible in the Info Age - even more so), but the Media's 24 hr 'News' Feeding Frenzy - all trying to scoop eachother for the next 15 s soundbyte in 2 min - is resulting in lazy journalism. Why research a story when you can feed it "Live" to your public "as it unfolds". The Press should feel ashamed that they let Big Buisseness corrupt their profession.

[Djinn Raffo]

I watched that BBC production i think, show about her.

In it i saw a clip of Donald Rumsfeld LIE, flat out lie, about the rescue operation after it occured. Saying that the rescue efforts faced considerable hostile Iraqi opposition. When in fact there was none and he knew there was none.

At the time remember that the war was 'reported' as going kind of badly, even though it wasn't, it just wasn't over in two days. So by lying about it a myth was created and the pentagon pulled off a massive propoganda coup cementing many opinions on the war by tricking the media into giving the public a story about a hero everyone could believe in. The media was duped. It was an excellent manipulation play by the Pentagon, regardless of how unscrupulous it was.

[Attalus]

Umm, I would not believe Nicholas Kristof if he said the sun was shining. And, why call Rumsfeld a LIAR when he could not have known the whole truth of the matter, basing his remarks on reports. And, as also, you continually disregard the Iraqi who told U.S. forces where she was, and quote Iraqis who have a vested interest in putting themselves in a good light. Sorry, I am not impressed.

[khazadman]

Well the New York Times and the BBC don't mean much to me. Especially the Times. They are having a bit of a credibility problem these days.

[Davros]

Originally posted by khazadman: Well the New York Times and the BBC don't mean much to me. Especially the Times. They are having a bit of a credibility problem these days.

I know what you mean - the same sort of credibility problem that is going on re WOMD (cough cough).