Posted on 04/24/2007 11:46:49 PM PDT by Star Traveler
US Soldier hailed for bravery in Iraq says Pentagon spin doctors made it all up
By DAVID GARDNER
The American military has been accused of telling lies about two of its most famous soldiers.
Official versions of the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch and the death of former US football star Pat Tillman turned both into national heroes.
But the propaganda was dismissed as "utter fiction" at a Capitol Hill hearing to expose the false battlefield stories peddled by the Pentagon.
Jessica Lynch, now 23, said she was giving testimony "to set the record straight".
"I'm no hero, the people who served with me who died are the real heroes," she said. "The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype."
She said the stories of derring-do did not apply to her.
The former army private became a celebrity after being taken prisoner as the first wave of U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March 2003.
Military chiefs hailed her a gritty heroine who was only captured after putting up fierce resistance during a gunfight during which she was shot and stabbed.
She was eventually freed in a US raid on a hospital where she was being held captive, the Pentagon said.
But it later emerged that her gun was jammed with sand so she couldn't use it and she was only injured when her vehicle crashed.
There were no Iraqi troops at the Saddam Hussein General Hospital when the Americans carried out their "rescue" and medical staff had unsuccessfully tried to hand over the wounded private to US forces prior to the raid.
Although an authorised book about her ordeal claimed she was raped by enemy soldiers, Iraqi doctors have disputed the allegations and Miss Lynch says she was too traumatised to remember it.
"My parents were hearing the story that I was this little girl Rambo from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting. But it wasn't true.
"The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.
"Why did they lie when the real heroes were my fellow soldiers who rescued others or fought to the death?"
She told Congress she had a sixinch gash in her head and severe back and leg problems from injuries suffered during the battle that killed 11 US troops.
Her testimony began with a recollection of the March 2003 attack. As she and her fellow soldiers drove through Nassiriya, Iraq, they noticed armed men standing on rooftops. Three soldiers were quickly killed when a rocket-propelled-grenade hit their vehicle.
Another eight died in the ensuing fighting. Miss Lynch said she later woke up in hospital. "When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move. I could not call for help. I could not fight," she said.
"The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans."
On April 1, US troops came for her. "A soldier came into the room. He tore the American flag from his uniform, and he handed it to me in my hand and he told me, 'We're American soldiers, and we're here to take you home'. And I looked at him and I said, 'Yes, I'm an American soldier, too'."
"I had the good fortune to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like Pat Tillman, did not have that opportunity," she added.
"I'm still confused as to why they chose to lie and try to make me a legend when the real heroes were my fellow soldiers that day."
Pat Tillman, 27, became a national hero after he gave up a lucrative contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to join the US Army and was killed during an ambush in an Afghan mountain pass three years ago.
Tillman, a member of the army's elite Rangers force, was awarded the Silver Star, the military's thirdhighest combat decoration, after the Pentagon said he was killed leading a counter-attack.
The story was revealed as bogus after pressure from Tillman's family. In reality he died as a result of friendly fire.
His brother Kevin - who also joined up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and was in a convoy behind his brother - rejected army claims that the confusion arose because of the fog of war.
He said the Pentagon version was "utter fiction" and charged the military with "intentional falsehoods that meet the legal definition for fraud".
"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," he added.
The committee's Democrat chairman Henry Waxman said: "The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth. That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."
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24/04/07 - News section
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Find this story at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=450509&in_page_id=1770 ©2007 Associated New Media
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1823194/posts
Just damn. OooRah.. Marines..
In the case of the original "Lynch Story", I think you'll find that it was a case of the "embed reporters" getting a whiff of "the Rambo story" -- which served their 'women in combat' agenda -- and pressing the Pentagon briefers & theater PA officers for details that just weren't forthcoming in the jumble of the offensive into Iraq. The Press had egg on their faces when the story eventually blew up.
I think this is major case of blame-shifting on the part of the Media. The story was already unraveling when Lynch was recovered, so the criticism extended to the negative characterization of the rescue operation. (I wonder what they would have written had we taken casualties getting her back? Probably would have called that a screw-up, too.)
Although an authorised book about her ordeal claimed she was raped by enemy soldiers, Iraqi doctors have disputed the allegations and Miss Lynch says she was too traumatised to remember it.
Exactly who authorized the book?
Yep. The poster has produced no statements by the Pentagon triggering the Jessica as hero story.
I'm very disappointed in her allowing herself to be used over a stale story for political gain by the Dims. The spec-ops guys who rescued her had no idea they wouldn't encounter resistance but they went behind enemy lines anyway. She's received top notch, unlimited care for her very serious injuries. You'd think she wouldn't then turn around and attack the Army and her former fellow soldiers.
The Army gave her no medal for heroism but issued medals to the real heroes of that firefight - and the press has ignored them. That's the real story.
A couple of things here for those who choose to climb into the “way-back” machine.
Much of these “Lies” that the pentagon purpotedly told were based originally on reports picked up by soldiers that had “witnessed” Lynche’s capture, picked up by the media and reported as fact before the “fog of war” had cleared.
By the time the facts began emerging, the media had already written the story. Why, at that point should the military refute a story that did so much for Morale?
In Tillman’s case, he was such a celebrity, that to report that he died of friendly fire would have been a major blow to morale.
Clauswitz stated, “All military action is intertwined with psychological forces and effects.” - On War, 1832.
This war, like all wars, is being fought on many fronts. The home front needs heroes to sustain its own support for war. Lynch and Tilmans family, while concerned for the truth, have failed to think through the consequences of their actions. In the end, they will hurt the cause for which they sacrificed.
There was a great scene in flags of our fathers when the three Heroes of Iwo were on the Bond tour and were complaining that they were not heroes and the whole thing was a sham.
One of organizers put it bluntly, if they didn’t get out there and play their assigned roles so the money could be raised to carry on the war, it would be lost, as would the sacrifices of all their buddies.
In both these cases, short-sighted selfish interests have won out over the big-picture of winning the WOT.
“I remember seeing Dan Abrams on MSNBC admit that they had no evidence that the military had said any of the things the media was reporting. He called them “media rumors”.”
It looks like the Pentagon never attributed heroic actions to Private Lynch, the media did. Doesn't stop folks from blaming them though.
It *was* gotten right in the first place, everywhere but the media. The DOD didn't set out to make her a hero, the media did. That was the story they wanted to tell, and they told it. Pretty Blond Rambo/POW... it was a fun story, but it didn't come from any facts, and I remember specifically that the Pentagon was circumspent about confirming any of the media's "facts" in press conferences up until the rescue and debriefs of all the players.
Now this is just a game being played by leftist anti-Americans. Quit believing them.
circumspect, I meant. Dangit.
You said — “Quit believing them.”
Including Jessica Lynch and the parents of Pat Tillman?
You said — “Doesn’t stop folks from blaming them though.”
Yeah, and apparently doesn’t stop Jessican Lynch from saying so, or the parents of Pat Tillman either.
That was then, this is now. There was a lot more control over the media back then. These are different times, and the military has to understand that.
You said — “Why, at that point should the military refute a story that did so much for Morale?”
Well, because morale should always be based on the truth of the matter so it doesn’t come back and bite you in the butt.
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And then — “In Tillman’s case, he was such a celebrity, that to report that he died of friendly fire would have been a major blow to morale.”
Except for the fact that now Pat Tillman’s parents are trying to get it straightened out..., plus Jessica Lynch herself.
I mean..., if it weren’t for the *very people themselves* (which includes Tillman’s parents) trying to do this — it might be considered nothing...
What about Tillman's parents? The Army confirmed that he was killed in combat. Within a couple of weeks it was announced that the Army was investigating the circumstances. Yah, so? Then the Army released their report that he'd been killed by our side. Unfortunate, and it sucks, but it doesn't change much. it doesn't change his service any.
I haven't seen where we, or Tillman's parents, were told some different Army-fabricated narrative before the facts were known. The media might have embellished things a little bit, but none of that came from the Army.
If there were individual Rangers that were there and had certain facts of what happened to Tillman, it would have been *wildly* inappropriate for them to talk directly to the media or Tillman's family before an Army investigation was completed.
Different people often witness events in very different ways. The whole story needs to be explored before one person's impressions prejudice the popular understanding. Imagine if some soldier believed it was some fact set with some gruesome details, perhaps even that it was a suicide or something-- and he turned out to be wrong-- but had already tortured the minds of the family with the wrong information. That would be wrong.
In neither story was "the truth" something that anybody in the Army sat on for any amount of time. There were reports. Some of the reports were wrong, some of them were right. The Army investigated and in a matter of a couple of weeks in each case publicly released a report that told the truth.
If you want to point fingers at people coloring the story to fit their own plot outline, look to the media. They had these red-meat stories that they really wanted to tell. So they told them before they really knew anything.
Did Jessica Lynch read this before she gave her testimony about what happened to her?
Well, that sort of thing tends to stick with me, and I’ll be saying, “I’ll just wait for the other shoe to drop and not believe what I hear right off the bat...”
It makes it very much harder, now, for me to just take anything the Pentagon says at face value — and especially so, when they consider “information” and “media” as part of the “tools of war”, rather than simple truth. And there has been information given to us that indicates that the military does send out disinformation, in order to help its own cause — while they gave the “proviso” that this kind of disinformation is directed overseas and not here in the U.S.
But, since we get our news from all over the world, this is not a useful distinction...
You said — “ I’m reminded of the Jack Nicholson line in “A Few Good Men”, “You can’t handle the Truth.” (I don’t mean you, personally). The fact is that things are done in the heat of combat that men can not talk about for years. WW2 vets will admit to eachother that they did this or that were outside the accepted rules of warfare.”
Yes, I’m sure this is so. And in today’s world of instant media and the digital cameras and the video cams proliferating — it’s getting harder and harder to just “keep it quiet” and put it aside. It ends up coming back to “bite you in the butt”.
The fact of the matter is that if they are going to do that anyway, “but we just won’t talk about it” — then *be done with it* and make it an *open policy* and just “go for it”.
This thing of “we’re telling you this, but it was actually that” is what is getting everyone into trouble. If they’re going to do “that” — then just make it policy and *do it*....
.
And then — “I know a Korean War vet that said that it was SOP NOT to take prisoners until the position was secured. That means there were no fine distinctions made about whether an opposing soldier was “resisting” or not. I’ve seen our own generals blanche at roundtable discussions when a veteran junior officer mentions this type of thing.”
Yep, I can understand that. And this shouldn’t be covered up. It should be *policy* if they’re going to do that. Be done with it and “make it so”....
So, when is she going to give back the Bronze Star she was awarded?
You said — “The guy that supposedly walk 10 miles to tell US where she was is also crap BTW.”
Really? Well..., it’s got “legs” and it doesn’t seem to be going away...
Well done.
She should get higher award for being honest! Sometimes speaking truth require more courage than combat in war.
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