The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Jessica Lynch
: Before those of you so inclined start going after Jessica Lynch again (pegged to the movie), first read more about the sacrifices and suffering she endured for her country. The Daily News reports today that her book reveals she was raped.
“The records do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead.”
Damn right. If you think that movie isn’t a 100% accurate portrayal of how it all went down, you’re just expression your hatred of Ms. Lynch and you’re probably happy to learn she was raped.
Why do you people hate America so much? Remember: there are only two ways to go here. Swallow the story whole or else you’re “going after” Ms. Lynch.
“If you think that movie isn’t a 100% accurate portrayal of how it all went down, you’re just expression your hatred of Ms. Lynch and you’re probably happy to learn she was raped.”
If it is 100% accurate then it would be the first movie ever to be 100% accurate. Are we now suppose to root for a rape scene in the film so that it’s an “100% accurate” account?
However it went down I’m sure it was awful for her. I can’t imagine how scary being a POW is. She should be commended for her bravery and resolve.
But I think the issue is not about what or what didn’t happen to her; it’s about how the Bush Admin. manipulated the episode into a public relations event for the war.
Jeez. It’s irresistible, like shooting fish in a barrel:
So, if you heard that the NBC movie had already wrapped and that those who had seen it said it characterized her captors as the innocent victims of US imperialism, portrayed her as an unsympathetic, idiot-hick, and portrayed the rescue as completely staged by the US government for the TV cameras, would you be unhappy if NBC made the wise decision not to air the movie?
Laertes:
Was there actual personal corroboration of these claims we heard of gunshot wounds torture and rape? Or are we to unquestionably accept anything portrayed by the party affected and the tale produced for a movie script.
I give the young women full credit for what I am sure was her full and patriotic service in Iraq. I was never a captive but know of the danger and terror a soldier faces in war.
The big question is “how accurate are all, or any of the accounts of her captivity and rescue”?
Isn’t finding the truth, whatever it is, more important than possibly making up an expedient story for propaganda purposes or for a movie script? Does the fact that her story was, and still is given preferrential attention over all the other captives make you feel a little uncomfortable. I know a lot of people are thirsting for the truth. In the citation of valor under fire for any recognition you always need eye witness corroboration to verify the story.
No one questioning the story is doing so out of hatred for our country. Many of us served or are serving with the US military. We just want to make sure there are are no less than honorable circumstances involved with this story.
Oh, please. There is absolutely no evidence that her rescue was staged for a pr coup. It’s more than possible because the absence of evidence does not mean innocence, but there’s just no evidence. Honestly, I think people are projecting their own hatred and distrust of the government onto this issue. I think of this issue the same way I think of the bizarre accusations of empire and Jewish cabals.
Weren’t the other pows rescued after Lynch? I bet they would have gotten much more attention had they been first.
I just hope she is making some money off the deal. It can’t change what happened to her, but at least she doesn’t have to worry about money much in the future.
She has absolutely more than paid her dues to our country and the freedom we love that goes with it.
Signed,
A Vet
Over the past months there have been many accounts of what actually happened to Jessica Lynch. First, she was tortured and shot; than that she was “rescued” as the enemy was already leaving in flight; she was subsequently cited for exemplary valor under fire and credited with “killing enemy until she ran out of ammunition”. Turns out her injuries did not include any gunshot wounds; her actual rescue was cofirmed as I stated (enemy fleeing); an almost unbelievable thought that an enemy would humanely spare even a women who had just killed some of their buddies.
The comments, so far, seem to be breaking along gender lines. I hope that this whole issue doesn’t break down to a male vs female mock debate over equality, again.
Sounds like some people are willing to believe, unquestionably, any version of any story that confirms what they wish to be the truth. This is not a personal criticsm of anyone. It is a suggestion that we be always wary of stories almost too good to be true. And anything our government announces cannot be accepted with blind faith.
Just read the medical reports, Marcel and you will find out she was raped and severyl injured.
Not to knock her, but can anyone name one single american who has died over there? I can’t. I do know her name though. I’m a relatively rabid consumer of news. I’m sure I could seek out this info, but why don’t I know it of course?
“Oh, please. There is absolutely no evidence that her rescue was staged for a pr coup.”
I wasn’t suggesting the whole thing was staged. All I said was that the US made a BIG DEAL out of her rescue, be it legitimately dramatic or not. They saved a pretty white girl and they milked it for it was worth. You can’t blame them, but you can’t help but be cynical about it either. Where is the movie and book about the African-American woman soldier who was held hostage?
I think Miss Lynch is a great American. Like all great people, lesser folk will try to bend her story to fit their own agenda.
Pathetic losers that they are.
Marcel ‘First, she was tortured and shot; than that she was “rescued” as the enemy was already leaving in flight; she was subsequently cited for exemplary valor under fire and credited with “killing enemy until she ran out of ammunition”.’
Google those and you’ll see that it was all media hype/spin, printed/posted before statements from US military or government. Well, in the rescue itself, the Iraqi armed personnel had indeed left – as stated by CENTCOM the next day – but this was not known until after the rescuers arrived.
The controversy over whether her rescued was staged or stage-managed is irrelevant now. What matters is what happened. What happened is that she was brutalized. That’s a war crime.
Well said, Diana.
Has anyone heard the name SFC Paul Ray Smith?
He simply happens to be first US Medal of Honor
recipient in the past 10 years. He served in Iraq, too. There is no controversy here. The issue of appropriateness of this citation for valor was easily settled by a review process that went from the initiating unit commander through numerous higher review boards and had to be finally approved by the US Army Commander.
Sfc Paul Ray Smith will never profit from movie or book rights even though his valor in combat is unquestionable. Because his medal is being awarded to him posthumously and will be presented to his widowed wife and their chuldren.
Why we are even discussing the merits of the Jessica Lynch story now strikes me as a bit needless, except to measure the story accuracy of a film. Do you think there might be room for a SFC Smith movie? Maybe not, because the story might not be exciting or titillating enough. How could his story compete with the story of the capture, torture and rape of a White American young woman by the brutal, dark skinned beasts of the Iraqi Army?
If you are now taking the last sentence to be the blathering of a racist or sexist, you would be wrong. I am a brown-skinned, native born American male, Vietnam vet and respect the equality of women.
I just question the story line and seemingly ulterior motives driving this story. Not many stories suffer from under-embellishment – you know the rest of this line.
For you Google-ers – here is another name for you to look up. Read the citation to go along with it and then decide for yourself if the Jessica Lynch story is more important.
I agree with Diana.
To Marcel and others who think the “US” orchestrated her fame, I think you can place the blame on the sensational aspects of news organizations. It is those heads of “news” who decide what gets covered and what is newsworthy. It’s the same people who bled pages of ink over the “problems” of one Princess Diana, another pretty blonde.
I don’t blame Jessica Lynch or the US government for the fact that the MEDIA chose her (a tiny blonde and attractive teenager) to be their cover girl of the war rather than others. It’s not her fault and I bet she would trade it all not to have had the experience she had in Iraq.
Marcel, you are reading wayyyyy to much into this. Its just a story that the media thinks will sell. It has nothing to do with her race, her sex, etc. Remember that guy who guy shot down over Bosnia, Scott Sp-something? The media frenzy that happened over that? Its the same thing. There’s no ulterior motive (what do you think is the ulterior motive? I’m interested). No racial conspiracy. Just $$$ and a story that people thing is compelling and will sell.
Marcel etc.
The movie is not authorized by Jessica Lynch, the book however is, if you have any questions about how brutally she was treated, read the book. Jessica Lynch is a fine young American and no amount of carping and conspiracy rhetoric will change that. If your problem is with the government or the media take it up with them.
I remember reading the BBC “expose” of her rescue at their web-site, then going to the readers comments section only to be nauseated by the cynicism of the readers who were accusing our armed forces of stage managing her rescue. Then there were those who would deny her injuries. And many of the comments were written by Americans who are so obsessed by conspiracy theories that they feel compelled to pile filth on an already heartbreaking event. Americans who questioned her right to be awarded a Purple Heart. I was filled with sadness then and today I am shaking as I read comments that once again use Jessica Lynch to further their own dishonest and hate-filled agenda. For those of you who doubt the veracity of her suffering, are you satisfied to know that she was sodomised so brutally that she has no control over her bowels? You should be ashamed of yourselves.
None of us will know the veracity of her movie. Get over it. I think we all know that she is a veteran with combat-related injuries, you know, a hero. She deserves our respect.
If we don’t know the names of other heros, don’t blame me. I assume the media knows the names and has the ability to print their names and stories in my newspaper. I don’t know why they don’t; I love reading those stories.
Thanks Jeff.
In fact, this is the one area where I think the Admin has been uncharacteristically discreet. The media made much of Jessica because she is young, pretty, blonde, and female. That’s life.
She is entitled to make as much money as she can, and I hope she makes a bundle. That’s the American way.
She will suffer physical pain & emotional scars the rest of her life. That’s tragic. That’s life.
Was there actual personal corroboration of these claims we heard of gunshot wounds torture and rape? Or are we to unquestionably accept anything portrayed by the party affected and the tale produced for a movie script.
According to the Daily News piece, Lynch denied the whole “fighting to the death” thing. She also denies the Iraqi lawyer claim that she had been slapped around. As for “corroboration” of a possible rape, how would that even be possible? Everyone else in her humvee is dead, and the rest of the 507th thought she had been killed as well.
Despite it being from the Daily News, I’m inclined to believe this. If she were just trying to keep the hype alive, she could have easily said that she did what the initial — Iraqi sourced — reports said she did. I can’t imagine why someone would tell the truth about all that, but then turn around and make up an anal rape story.
Marcel does make some good points about unsung heroes from this war not getting the kind of coverage they deserve — but that’s no reason to say that Lynch deserves less attention. It only means the others deserve a lot more.
After reading this piece on Patrick Miller, I’m convinced that the military coudn’t possibly be guilty of hyping the Lynch story, because they haven’t even bothered to try to hype the stories of guys like Miller — or Donald Walters, or Rob Dowdy — when doing so would have been so much easier — and would have cost them a lot less credibility.
After respectfully reading all the commentary (a lot of which seemed to be aimed at my heartlessnes), I am not yet moved sufficiently enough to view Jessica Lynch as my poster girl for human sacrifice and suffering.
How many of the folks above have been in the military or seen combat duty? How do you know the difference between heroics and just being caught in a bad situation and just hoping to survive?
I believe that Jessica’s story is about a young, idealistic woman from a less than affluent community of a less than affluent state that historically relies on service in the military for employment. I was in the army for four years (one tour of Vietnam with the 101st Airborne during the Tet Offensive) and served alongside many young men with the male version of Jessica’s background. The big difference is that most of the young men who served in Vietnam were draftees making not much more than $200/mo counting combat pay; some made less.
Many of these frightened but loyal young men died very unceremonius deaths in the mud and muck of an isolated marsh and lay there until a dead body detail was sent out to fetch their bodies as soon as it was safe. Yes, body rescue was important and often had to be done under fire and risk of your own death.
There were not that many POWs taken by the enemy as most units could not afford the extra weight and delay of their movement herding prisoners would require. Besides, the only propaganda benefit came from the capture of pilots and other officers. So if you were wounded or disarmed, you could say your prayers because you were going to be shot to death unless your buddies and some daredevil helicopter pilot came to your rescue.
There were few good food feeding stations and many, as did I, ate WW2 and Korea vintage C rations for as much as a month straight.Most times meals were eaten catch-as-catch-can and sometimes consisted of the local livestock; given willingly by friendlies or by whatever means necessary (no violence advocated here).
Ambush by insurgents, as in Iraq, was a constant worry. You never got over the feeling that death could come for you without warning from just about anywhere. Nerves were always on edge when you weren’t in certified “safe” areas. As many of you are aware, innocent men, women and children, along with the enemy were sometimes killed because who in hell knew one from the other? We didn’t see a lot of uniformed soldiers who would present easy identification.
Seemingly small luxuries became large ones when you will not experience a hot shower for months on end. I never acclimated to constantly feeling sticky with dirt and sweat, especially sleeping in the day’s uniform which will be worn until a safe place and time can be found to do some laundry with water heated in some makeshift container over a fire.
Advance reconnaissance was crude and not very often done from helicopters or armored vehicles, so a squad on foot was very susseptible to ambush, and often was. The usual reward of a Purple Heart is given to both the wounded in action and the killed in action. No medals for the diseased in action, who may suffer more aggravation and disability than a wounded person.
I mention this situation as evidence of the wide range of qualifiation for the Purple Heart – a superficial bullet nick to loss of limb or life.
So don’t think that all Purple Hearts are equal measures of sacrifice.
I won’t labor you much longer, except that I would like for you to know that, unlike today’s veterans, we Vietnam vets usually came home through the back door as we were almost universally seen as the direct spawn of a damned Vietnam policy. No parades for us. No press conferences. No press publicity. No movie or book deals. Only our friends and family to wecome us home. For the severely wounded or sick,only a lengthy relationship with a VA hospital to look forward to. How would you feel if you had to hide the fact that you were a war vet from your college classmates whom you hoped never discovered you were there on the G.I. Bill.
We were just doing our jobs as we swore to do. I guess we were too blissfully ignorant to expect better. So please try to understand where I come from. I don’t fault you for not having my experiences. I am from another time warp. One from which it takes a lot to make a real impression. I’m sorry, but I just don’t get this story.
Mr. Perez you get the story very well. As for your fury at Miss Lynch, well, with all due respect sir, get over it. She will have to live with her pain, just as you are living with yours. I say that as a Marine who just returned from the ITO.
Marcel-
As a Desert Storm vet who’s first handshake coming home came from one of your brothers, I’d like to offer two things:
1. Welcome home
2. Thank you for your honorable service.
For the rest- The larger point is not that PFC Lynch isn’t worthy of all the attention. It is that there are others that are just as worthy and some that are definitely more than worthy. Yet their names and stories remain unpromoted.
It is a problem that won’t be solved here, but it is a problem just the same.
-Regards
” I was filled with sadness then and today I am shaking as I read comments that once again use Jessica Lynch to further their own dishonest and hate-filled agenda. For those of you who doubt the veracity of her suffering, are you satisfied to know that she was sodomised so brutally that she has no control over her bowels? You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
This comment is an all-time BuzzMachine classic. Hysterical. Thanks. Keep them coming.
To suggest that those who have differing opinion about how the Lynch story has been handled are “satisfied” that Lynch was sodomized is to take this discussion so far outside the realm of reality it’s comical.
via Drudge:
Jessica Lynch criticized military for exaggerating accounts of her rescue and recasting her ordeal as patriotic fable… MORE.. Asked by ABCNEWS anchor Diane Sawyer if military’s portrayal of rescue bothered her, Lynch said: ‘Yeah, it does. It does that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. Yeah, it’s wrong’… Asked how she felt about reports of her heroism: ‘It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about. Only I would have been able to know that, because the other four people on my vehicle aren’t here to tell the story. So I would have been the only one able to say, Yeah, I went down shooting. But I didn’t’… Asked about claims the military exaggerated danger of the rescue mission: ‘Yeah, I don’t think it happened quite like that’…
PFC Lynch isn’t what the media expects. She appears humble and self aware of precisely what she did and did not do.
Kudos to her.
Dann… Agree… Here’s a link to the ABC story (this comes from an ABC interview).
Jeff Jarvis via Dann:
Thank you for sharing the ABC story. Jessica’s story is pretty much what I thought happened. Of course I never thought she had personally made up any stories. I saw a bio special on her and her family and I knew she was a humble and honest person; the kind of young woman I would have liked to know and served with. I always fretted over my buddies and probably would have been protective of her or any other female service person in my work unit. As the eldest of 7 children, I grew up with this protective instinct.
Dann:
Thank You for your very appreciated words of welcome. Too bad for me there weren’t more Danns
back then to greet us or thank us.
I’ll never forget this heavyset man in unmarked fatigues(just the single name, BEGLEY), walking up to me, grasping my hand firmly in his and saying “thank you for your sacrifice and service to our country”.
This happened in an Army medical unit in Long Binh, Vietnam, before my medical evacuation. Imagine, the most warm and personal greeting coming from a man who made the trip from Hollywood, California, to help raise the morale of our soldiers. This man was the late actor, Ed Begley. For you younger people, his son, of the same last name, is still active in the movie industry.
Finnesota and others expressing distress:
No one is taking the position of mocking, belittleing, or denying what Jessica Lynch, herself, says is her true story. My objection is to how other people used this young woman to make a story for their own motives; embelishing the facts and adding some of their own. How many people watching the early news of her rescue were immediately thinking “here comes a movie”?
I confess I did not see the TV presentation. I wish I had. Maybe I wouldn’t be so involved in this commentary exchange. I will try to do so, soon.
No one should have to experience the injurious insults you describe. Your voices sound angry. If you are speaking from a position of personal experience or knowledge, I hear your expression of pain; it is clearly in your (written) voices.
I apologize to you if my inability to clearly express my position is interpreted by you to be in any way negative toward women in general, or to Jessica Lynch, specifically.
I thank you all for allowing this forum to happen. I have learned something and am better for the experience.
As always. Either lies or only half of the truth (which is worse than lie)here in this blog. A pure but polite representation of American propaganda.
I have to add what this post doesn’t say. It is not surprising though. That is typical and only suits those who don’t think.
Jessica Lynch also strongly criticized the Pentagon for using her as a propaganda tool and by exagerating her story.
She not only denies being beaten by Iraqis, but says: “I don’t remember that ever happening. From the time I woke up in the hospital, no one beat me, no one, nothing…I mean, I actually had one nurse, that she would sing to me”.
Jessica Lynch will forever be a shame for warmonger US propaganda and a disppointment for American public who believed the so-called rescue operation.
What US media lacks is ethics something that also shered by Buzmachine.