Writing in the Orlando Sentinel, Kathleen Parker explained that Jessica Lynch joined the Army to get the college tuition she needed to become a kindergarten teacher. Lynch wasn't looking for an assignment the Army never told her might put her into the combat situation that nearly cost her life, and left her shattered and crippled. And Lynch was put into that situation because the Pentagon has caved in to feminist pressure. Many veterans and observers have protested Lynch's "hero" status, and Parker feels Jessica Lynch's book is far from the story of a regular soldier, but rather "... the hijacked...