Last May you could buy a magnet on eBay that said, “America loves Jessica Lynch.”
I wonder if Jessica Lynch still loves America?
Private Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old soldier, was injured in a Humvee crash, treated kindly in a Nasiriyan hospital, and taken without resistance from the unarmed hospital by American soldiers.
Private Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old soldier, took a defiant stand against Iraqi soldiers, sustaining gunshot and stab wounds. She shot several enemy soldiers, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition. She was taken to a Nasiriyan hospital, where an Iraqi security guard slapped her around.
Army Rangers and Navy SEALs stormed the hospital, exchanged fire with Iraqi soldiers, and brought Jessica Lynch home. Oh, and luckily they caught the rescue on tape and were able to broadcast the green-tinted, night-vision video of the mission for all of America to see.
In a country where the news is either affectionately or disgustingly referred to as info-tainment, it is the latter of these two versions of the rescue of Jessica Lynch that originally ran. Pieces of it were printed in respectable newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Unfortunately, the latter version is not true.
Lynch spoke after seven months of silence on Nov. 11 to Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Primetime. She was bothered by the military portrayal of her rescue. Lynch said it’s wrong that they used her to symbolize all this stuff. She questions the Army’s choice to film her rescue.
I question it, too. I also question media that turn a person into a patriotic symbol through lies and videotape. But then again, I question a country that sends 19-year-olds, or any human beings, to war.