Jessica lynch a hero?

[Commando_Barbi]

I understand what you are talking about Bouncer. I know the pros and cons of women in combat. I just get a little pissed when men generalize about women in the service. I have served for 18 yrs. NO, never in combat, because I have a job that stays behind the lines. But, I pull my weight and I don't use my gender to out of anything.

[BOUNCER]

But in a large organisation like any military unit you can't really go and picking the women you know can pull their weight, so we have to generalise. Of course I've seen plenty of male soldiers who were complete wasters also, but in general male soldiers are better able to carry out the job of a front line soldier than their female comrades.
I'm in a communications unit now, which of course females work happily along men. But for many years I was in an infantry unit, plus all my oversea's service has been with infantry units and I've experienced the limitations of women there. I'm an 'old soldier' and if I was to be totally honest I'd prefer a military unit without female soldiers, please don't take offence at that I'm being honest with my feelings and experience.

[borderbound]

first of all there are many good points of view on this tread

but i must voice my opinion
is she a hero your **** right she is why because she stood in a ceremony and solemly swore to defend our nation against all enemies foriegn
or domestic when she was asked to do a job, she did it , that makes her
the hero

the fact that the media are scumm and want to capitalize on a story is not her fault

other media examples menedez trial , oj trial , 9-11 , this list is endless

[Commando_Barbi]

Who's getting the proceeds to her book?

Did she turn down all the invitations to the talk shows? NO

Did she turn down the free designer clothes that she was offered? NO

If she was upset by the media .... why did she go on these shows?

Yes, every member of the military that joins and serves is a hero....but not everyone of them comes out writing books, and having interviews on major talk shows. Hmmm bet she didn't do that for free either.

[BullDogg20]

Hero is a word that is perhaps used to often these days, howevere that said, every one that is aprt of the Coalalition forces is a Hero in My eyes. I just wanna Give my thanks the the Service Men and Woman who are doing their part in fighting terrorism or *Trying to help the Iraqis*

[skinjob]

are you asleep? or just gullible.


its a war. people die, get raped, tortured,destroyed. thats what happens in a war. dont forget the pictures of a female aggressor involved with the subjugation and torture of iraqi (male) prisoners. its time the romantic notions of honour and chivalry were supplanted by some common sense.

ANYONE who undertakes to become a professional soldier at least has some notion of the risks. before you ship out to iraq, brit troops attend capture & evasion seminars. these seminars have one basic intent: to instill the clear message DO NOT GET CAPTURED! in detail, the briefings detail that if you are captured to expect brutality and a hefty dose of buggery. the CO tells the chaps: ' don't be ashamed when you get ****ed if you bone up and ejaculate, it just happens"

well i am rambling but the point is this any soldier caught can expect a real shyt time. you just resolve not to get caught and to survive any way you can. then you switch on and go to work.

if you look accross the sea at camp x-ray we have a perfect example that flouts international law and the geneva convention.

"when dealing with monsters......"

[skinjob]

well that was spectacularly disjointed. never mind. reads about as well as the sexed-up intel dossier.

the BBC is on the left is it? because they challenged the UK government's assertion that Saddam could launch WMD in 45 minutes against the west - and the BBC were correct as they showed the dossier was 1) an edit 2) 12 year old essay by a british-iraqi student, published on the internet!) .

[DBarcelo]

I don't think she's any more of a hero than anyone else. It's just stuff like that get's blown out of proportion to "remind" everyone that we are the good ones and they are the bad, evil ones that do horrible things to people. Lets try to not talk about it too much when we're the ones abusing people that we capture, lets not ask them to show up on any talk shows. But lets take this little all American looking little girlie and put her face everywhere they can so the American public can get upset and feel that the war is justified because the people over there are just so horrible.

[KAEW44]

Hate me all you want for saying this, but i think her entire story was made up to boost morale and self esteem in the troops and through the media, when the black chick got captured and was shown on Iraq TV as a captured soldier/medic no one cared..the news put her on for 7seconds saying her name, she was 'just another one' ...but when Jessica who is white and blond AKA 'a real american' was captured and put in hospital because of her injuries, then the soldiers just carried her out of hospital after the Iraqi troops had fled away from that city, and they made up the story to make it seem like a miraculous and patriotic life-threatning rescue aimed at rescuing jessica! now she's getting a movie made about it, a book written about it, and plenty of ca$h!!
Thats my opinion and i have all the proof i need that its true i dont care what any brainwashed media-holic thinks.

i wonder if anyone remembers the black woman captured...or even cares...where was the 'super mission' to save her??

[JT2k]

Provide us with your proof.

[DBarcelo]

I don't think the whole thing was made up, but I'm pretty sure it was blown all out of proportion and exagerated.

[DBarcelo]

I do remember the black chick that was captured also. I haven't heard of anyone offering her any movie deals or an talk shows interviewing her. I don't watch TV all that much, so maybe they have, but I haven't heard anything about it. Like KAEW44 said in but so many words, one was an average looking slightly over weight black chick and the other was a fairly attractive, small, little white chick. Nobody really gives a crap about what happened with the black chick, but everyone just feels so sorry for the poor little white chick. The whole thing was just another one of the ways that the government uses to make it's citizens feel as though a war is justified and that we are the "good" people while our enemies are the "bad" people.

[KAEW44]

Provide us with your proof.

Your asking me to do something impossible, because if i provide websites or sources then they can easily be dismissed as 'no true' or 'must be made up'......because every simple mind would love to convince itslef that the story is true! if you believe its true then the entire 'Armaggedon' movie theme of the heroes rescuing the world would come true in reality!
My source is simple and true, and you never heard it yourslef, back in october of 2003 the iraqi information/news minister (yes the elmo looking dude that was always on tv talking crap) was given political asylum in the United Arab Emirates (close to where i was assigned because i work in offshore oil fields 4months a year). He got the political refuge and another chance to restart his life because Iraq was already taken over and they all surrendered, and also he agreed to do a 4 episode TV special in wich he answered a lot of the questions that many people were curious about like why the iraq army surrendered so quickly, why saddam didnt leave the country, why many things happened that had reasons beyond 'because they were kicking our ass'.

When i first heard of the TV show i was skeptical and i was sure it was just a chance for him to talk more trash about the US and maybe trigger more hatred or sav face on his part. But what i saw was something completley different. The show was subtitled by the way wich was a first for an arabian speaking channel. And there are arab workers that work with me on the oil rig to confirm anything i needed. The man was a torn and broken man, he wasnt the same as when he was during the war when he was talking trash on tv. Him and all the Iraq government were operating in fear and scared $hitless about being killed by Saddam Hussein, so this was his chance to be himself and say all that was true. He was anti-saddam and described exactly how their past leader screwed them over and didnt ever do enough to prevent the war and so on. He was basically just a broken man that was honest about everything. He even described exactly what happened when a farmer supposedly 'forced' an apache helicopter to land , and he told the truth about how it was just a technical problem with the helicopter that forced the landing and not a farmer with a shotgun, and tha they had to lie to boost moral and esteem in the country!!!

Why did i mention all this its because i wanted to show that this guy is no longer part of the Iraqi Regime, he is spillng all the beans and he gave enough information to have saddam hunt him down if he heard it! And then came the Jessica Lynch incident!!!! Which to start off i knew was something fishy about the story because once again 'its too hollywood', and there was no mention of all the other people rescued as well, it was just focused on her...the one person....the perfect poster-person to win self esteem, afterall we do feel a great achievemen when we save the 'hot chick', it feels like a real accomplishment for our country, 'we bought back the hot one'!!! yeah left the balck one behind but we saved whitey!

So he mad ehis statement about the situation and he said exactly what i told you, that she was captured along with others, but sh was very injured with bone breaks and all so they put her in hospital and she wa taken care of humanely. Soon after the US forces used superiror firepower to make all the iraq troops run away and completly leave the city...that city was evacuated of iraq military forces totally. Then a regualar civilian was stopped by ground troops and he new a doctor that was in that same hospital so he knew that there were americans in it that were injured before they were captured.

So on goes the 'nghtvision' on the camcorder to make it seem like a midnight heroic rescue, and all they did was go up the stairs and bring her down!! that was it! yes that was it!!

So why do i believe him? Because he had no reason to lie anymore and he didnt lie about many things before that, and telling that story further confirmed that these 'heroic hollywood' stories dont just happen! If there was a serious struggle or gun fight then the iraqi troops would have killed everyone they can who i a prisoner. But it was just a media thing that simple minded people and inbreds would find very motivational and inspiring and also takes the attention away from the people that were still dying int he war!!

If you feel that i wa brainwashed, or that i have 'given in' to the iraq past government and thats why i am saying this then by all means do report this to whoever you want. Because i am patriotic and i do risk my life working overseas in hostile places just so you dont have to pay $5bucks a gallon for gas!!! I am confident in what i say and i am not stupid to believe anything the news tells me, since a good 0% of it is sugar-coated bull!!

[Makaveli_786]

The entire thing was made up, when i first heard it I thought what everybody thought, WOW what a hero..

A couple days later a headline flashes on "She was labelled a hero, tonite we reveal the truth about Jessica Lynch"

The show was full of statements from Washington spokesmen and her fellow soldiers, the whole **** thing was a big lie she didnt do half the **** they said she did they just found her unconcious next to a hummber and flew her ass out, its all a big scam, I didnt know things like this still happened, I hope Kerry runs a better government this is ridiculous.

[dynamike]

Yeah she didnt feel comfortable with it and told the truth what happened...and we never hear about it or her anymore...

[skinjob]

its a real insult to all the chaps (women included) that have given their lives - perhaps as real heros or more likely as ordinary professional soldiers - dying in the line of duty.

that anyone should manipulate the truth for any reason is dire. but the truth is we live in the information age and anyone who really thinks we can trust our media is naive in the extreme. all of our countries are guilty of having news that are centric to that particular; every country seems to portray itself at the heart of everything (whether or not that is true). all we can do is try to read between the lines.

we always champion ourselves in the west of telling it how it is. yet in the UK we have the omnipresent D-Notice committee.
and why are images of dead soldiers in boxes or bags banned from tv screens in America when its okay to see saddams shout-up sons and pics of torture in the Iraqi prisons? I reckon thats a pretty serious suppression of freedom right there.