So it turns out Bush and his fellow pro-war liars made the crap up, in order to craft a propaganda-hero to force public sympathy. Gee, what a surprise. I would never expect this from the Republican Party. Or the military. Or Bush. I mean, sure, he forged evidence and lied to the world, but who would've guessed he'd try to manipulate the American people?
This is really freaking brave of Lynch. Her military career's effectively over now, and any future career she has is in potential jeopardy, depending on the political orientation of her employers. She could've done the Oliver North thing and played liar for the administration. God knows she'd make money from it.
Posted by ae (Member # 3291) on :
It is a brave thing to do, but I think you may be overstating it a bit re: her hypothetical future employers. I don't see how this would significantly harm any possible career outside the military, though it does look like it could cause trouble for her if she stayed in it.
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
Thanks for not being caustic or anything, Ed.
Hell, if the Dems win the election, she just might have a seat in the cabinet!
What bothers me more is the rape charges. She claims to have remembered most of what went on, and that their doctors treated her well. And she insists that she wasn't raped.
But someone tried to convinced her she was, using some sort of medical testing as evidence.
A: If she was and doesn't remember a thing, why tell her?
B: Are we just trying to lower the American opinion of Arabs even more?
I think if either of the stories are made up, they probably both are.
Posted by Starla* (Member # 5835) on :
I reaed about this yesterday, and remember a couple of weekes ago there was a thread on this where someone was mad that she was being hailed as a hero because she is a woman.
I was going to try and find it, but didn't feel like it.
I just think it's completely screwed up. And she is really brave to speak out like she's doing.
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
All I can say is, Jessica - you go girl!
Posted by butterfly (Member # 5898) on :
Very brave - maybe it'll actually knock the Bush administration a peg or two.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Let me get this straight. Jessica said that the Iraqi who informed the American forces where she was should be considered a hero, and she said that the soldiers who rescued her were heroes. She declined to consider herself a hero. Her only criticism apparently was that the Bush administration used her and her rescue for propaganda purposes. Well, how big a deal is that, really? Certainly not unexpected. What Jessica said does not seem to me like major criticism; or am I missing something?
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
quote: A: If she was [raped]and doesn't remember a thing, why tell her?
Why tell her? Are you serious? For many reasons. She could get pregnant unless steps were taken. She could get a STD. She has a right to know what happened to her, no matter what she remembers.
[ November 09, 2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Morbo ]
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
quote: Her military career's effectively over now
See, this is what really annoys me. One, as a general rule when enlist in the army its not for a "career". Two, she already had been discharged to her combat wounds. In other words her career in the military has been over.
quote: She could've done the Oliver North thing and played liar for the administration. God knows she'd make money from it.
So she's not getting paid for her little TV special or this article? Is there any common sense left in the world?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:Lalo said:
So it turns out Bush and his fellow pro-war liars made the crap up, in order to craft a propaganda-hero to force public sympathy. Gee, what a surprise. I would never expect this from the Republican Party. Or the military. Or Bush. I mean, sure, he forged evidence and lied to the world, but who would've guessed he'd try to manipulate the American people?
Um, what “crap” are you referring to? That an Iraqi citizen tipped us off as to where they were? He did. That special forces units went in and got her out? They did. That they were operating behind enemy lines? They were. That such operations are ALWAYS dangerous? They are.
The Pentagon disavowed that she was wounded while fighting off the Iraqis very soon after the rescue. The press printed a bunch of rumors that were not from official channels; official channels were the ones who clarified the injuries.
Maybe it turns out there wasn’t a heavy guard at the hospital. These soldiers still went out behind enemy lines to bring back a wounded and captured soldier.
And the Iraqi who tipped off the Americans (at great risk to himself) was motivated to do so by seeing one of the interrogators slap her, according to his account.
Nothing was “made up” by the Bush administration or the Republican party. Was it filmed? Yes. Did they do it to provide a morale boost at a low point in the war? Yes. What’s wrong with that, if the truth
The public adoration for Lynch was never so much for her heroism as it was for the happiness over seeing her safely retrieved and pride in our forces for retrieving her.
I saw Lynch say they shouldn’t have filmed the rescue. I saw where she said they used her to symbolize unspecified “stuff.” I saw where she said she didn’t fight back. I saw where she said that the heroes were the Iraqi lawyer, the men in her unit who died in the ambush, and the soldiers who rescued her.
Could you point to the part in the article where Lynch says anybody made anything up? I read it twice and missed that part.
Oh, and just for my own edification, can you show me the documentation that any evidence was forged by the Bush administration.
I didn’t think so.
quote:Frisco said: And she insists that she wasn't raped.
Can you point to a source on this? Is it in her book? The linked article does not seem to agree.
quote:Lalo said: This is really freaking brave of Lynch.
quote:Starla* said: And she is really brave to speak out like she's doing.
quote:butterfly said: Very brave - maybe it'll actually knock the Bush administration a peg or two.
She has a book out less than 8 months after it happened. Her “controversial” statements have made her interview front page news for a lot longer than it would have been otherwise. I don’t think she’s risking the poorhouse, here.
I’m not saying she’s making these statements for that reason, but it’s hardly bravery to criticize the military, especially when her injuries will prevent her from having a career there anyway.
quote: Lynch said she has no memory of the sexual assault
quote:Dr. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyah's main hospital performed surgery on Lynch to repair a fractured femur and said he found no signs that she was raped or sodomized.
quote: In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Lynch said she has no recollection of a rape
quote: Lynch told Sawyer she doesn't remember being slapped or mistreated at the hospital, and she recalled one nurse sang to her.
quote: "You can hear that speculation," she said, "but to see it in print and to know it's fact, it hurts."
Nobody would write something down that wasn't true, of course.
quote: "Can you imagine the humility it takes to tell the world you were raped?" Eberbaugh said. "That's not a secret that a woman likes to tell."
But just in case the entire world doesn't know, I'll go ahead and tell the Associated Press.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
So “no recollection of rape” is the same as “she insists that she wasn't raped”? Interesting logical progression, there.
She was in Iraqi intelligence’s control for 9 days after Khafazji examined her. So the only relevant disclaimer is from al-Hazbar, the director of the hospital the intelligence officers brought her to. And of course, he was the director of the hospital that the intelligence officers felt enough in control of to keep a PoW there.
Dagonee
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
Either way...the only way it rings true is as a lie meant to wrench our gut and justify taming the savage Iraqis.
It doesn't help that these charges come from a man suspended by the NY Times for putting his name one someone else's work.
“justify taming the savage Iraqis”? I think there’s enough mass graves to do that without this story. No one has EVER used the Lynch story to justify the war.
How was that web page relevant? It didn’t mention the rape (“alleged rape”, if you will).
And the page reads more as a classic example of lazy bandwagon reporting than propaganda put out by the Pentagon. Remember, the inaccurate articles all quote anonymous sources.
The story as it is understood today, whether or not she was raped, is still one of survival against great odds, compassion, and heroism.
Dagonee
Posted by sarahdipity (Member # 3254) on :
quote:On Thursday, Lynch won admiration in her hometown for having the courage to reveal she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
So that is from the first article linked on this thread. *shrugs*
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)