AMEN.

What turns my stomach is that the "Jessica Lynch Story" on NBC is being promoted using the utterly meaningless tagline, "The Story That Gave America Hope." Does it reflect poorly on me that for a millisecond before I heard the word "...hope" I wished for once it would be "...scabies"?

"The Story That Gave America Scabies."

What hope, exactly, did the Jessica Lynch story give us? Hope that we too can someday be shot at and raped by Iraqis? Hope that our daughter too can someday be shot at and raped by Iraqis, and rescued on film? Hope that they wouldn't make a TV movie out of this?

And not to harp on NBC, who after all can't help who they are any more than a puppy can help fouling a rug, but would it be too much to ask for them to promote the "Jessica Lynch Story" in language that is not identical to their promo spots for the steaming dungheap that is ER?

"Tonight, on a significant new ER..."
"Tonight, on the most important ER you will ever watch...."
"Tonight, on ER, a story that will give the nation scabies."

For God's sake. Jessica Lynch is a nineteen-year-old supply clerk from West Virginia, and thank God she at least has not forgotten that. And I do hope that she does not have scabies.

agreed. this is a disappointing story, but i am impressed by private lynch.

johno, at least they didn't have a very special cross promotion where movie jessica stops by the ER and romano makes a series of insensitive remarks so the croatian guy beats him senseless.

is scabies related to scurvy?

My faith in humanity would be restored if, just once, a person who unexpectedly found themselves in the media spotlight declined to write a book and do the TV interview circuit. I guess I'm getting cynical in my old age.

Chris, sadly, no. Scabies is a dry, scaly, itchy skin rash caused by tiny mites. By comparison, scurvy is child's play and easily cured. Of course, if I had a choice, I'd take neither.

Why do I know this? Because back in high school Crazy Ray Murray came down with the scabies and there was a scare because he was in the same gym class I was. Y'see, you usually get scabies because you live in an exceptionally dirty house, and then they are spread by just being near other people.

Crazy Ray liked to show people his scabies.

But then, Crazy Ray also: got caught burglarizing a house because he fell asleep on the sofa; attempted to hide from cops who pulled him over by hiding under his jeep; did the sofa trick AGAIN; stole food out of the deep freeze of a friend of mine's; and, as his science project hooked his tongue up to both poles of a large lantern battery.

So Ray was a bucket of laughs.

----returning to topic---

My comments here shouldn't be construed as I don't have respect for Jessica Lynch-- I do. So far she's done only a few talk shows and written a book, and these things are practically de rigeur for any American in similar circumstances. She has not appeared in Playboy, campaigned for or against the President, spoken out regarding the war, or appeared on WWE Smackdown. It's kind of nice to see someone weather her brief celebrity politely without making a grab for the spotlight.

Given the trauma and pressure I think she is performing remarkably well, and pushing aside the hero plate dumped in her lap by the military requires strength of character.

Rat Scabies was in the Damned.

Rat Scabies is one of the greatest drummers of all time. If he had died after recording "New Rose" that would still be the case.

I wouldn't want to stand next to Rat Scabies.

It is indeed de rigeur to do these things. That's why I would like to see her politely bow out of the spotlight, out of respect for her fellow soldiers, especially the ones who have died. The Iraq war is some serious shit, and getting madeup for TV, posing for pictures with Diane Sawyer, getting a book deal, and all the other crap associated with the spotlight treatment just comes off as opportunistic, if you ask me. It would be so classy if she just said "No. The rape and injury of a young, female, fairly attractive blond soldier by some third world thugs in a wartime encounter will not be used to sell commercial spots for your network, and will not be used to satisfy the base curiosity of the TV-watching public. Thank you, anyway. Now you may go back to covering the Lacy Peterson story."

Duane, you are going to get called un-American-:). Haven't you heard? Everyone is supposed to take the money and run.

Pfc. Lynch has my deepest sympathy in regard to her suffering. However, the way the U.S. turned her into a propaganda symbol is shameful. I am glad she is at least somewhat aware of having been used.

I am a little skeptical of the rape claim. I would like to know who diagnosed it and where. What were the circumstances of the rape? It sounds awfully vague.

Well, if I said I was raped in a book, I sure hope people would take my word for it and not asked for graphic "how do you know you were raped" details. As I would think it would be apparent to the victim whether she was violated.

But hey, that's just my opinion. She didn't need to be raped to have my sympathy.

Actually the shameful propaganda originated from the New York Times. CNN said the Times people said she emptied her magazine, Audy Murphy style, before being captured. Of course people familiar with the NY Times style of journalism knew the fix was in as a way to vindicate their advocacy of social engineering the military.

I agree with Dawn. I cannot fathom this particular young woman making up such a claim for any purpose.

Dawn, I'm not sure she is saying she was raped. My understanding is that someone somewhere made such a diagnoses. That is why I want to know more. Remember they also claimed she had all kinds of other injuries and had been tortured in the hospital.

Mac,

Yeah, I am skeptical of some of the "facts" as they have been laid out because of posturing on both sides. What I believe they said was that there were a few hours that Jessica was "missing" do to excruciating pain and that it is believed that she was raped.

I was merely asserting that if she says she was would know damn well if my body's been violated whether or not I was awake to witness it (which in her case I hope she wasn't).

I am going by her testimony and no one else's.

Good point, Mac -- she isn't definitely saying she was raped, because she cannot remember. But her own published account suggests she does believe such a possibility is credible. According to today's Times, Lynch's book I Am a Soldier, Too "reports that Ms. Lynch's military doctors found injuries consistent with sexual assault and unlikely to have resulted from the Humvee crash that caused her other wounds, suggesting that she was raped after her capture. Ms. Lynch, who was unconscious immediately after the crash, does not remember any such assault, according to people who have talked to her and read the book. Those details of the book's contents were reported yesterday in The New York Daily News."

I'm curious about her weapon jamming. Does this happen a lot? You'd think we would know how to make reliable guns of all things.

Not in the fucking desert.

Mac Diva:

The report is that Jessica Lynch herself has no recollection of being raped. She cannot remember - at all - a period of several hours after she was captured. Apparently, physicians who treated her after her rescue diagnosed her as having been violently raped/sodomized. CNN has an article about the book here.

Thanks for the additional info, peeps! I'm following the links.

That just makes me want to throw up. How could a human being do that to severly incapcitated individual regardless of his or her country of origin.

My God, as though humans are vessels for the perversion of animals.

I really don't like people today.

I guess war IS hell.

Oh come on she is a hero! She was the only american soldier kept hostage by the Iraqi's right? Or at least the only white all-american young lady...which is the same thing I guess.

lol

Gerry, Atrios and I were the first bloggers to cut through the Washington Post's B.S. because we both were familiar with the journalists there. (I worked with some of them as a reporter.) But, I think it is important to distinguish between the WaPo/Pentagon propaganda and Pfc. Lynch's suffering, which was real, though misreported. She deserves sympathy for what she really did go through, as do all troops who are injured. Does she deserve more sympathy than other soldiers? No. That is where the image making, which I agree has a racial and sexual bias to it, comes in.

My deepest empathy is still for the chlldren and civilians injured and killed in Iraq. I expect the picture of the boy will no arms because of American bombs to stay in my mind as the picture of the girl burned by napalm in Vietnam has.

While I feel complete sympathy and sadness for any civilian, of all ages and genders (but of course children above all) I save a special place in my heart for citizens of this country, as they are my relatives, neighbors, and friends. That may seem globally biased, but somethings I can't help.

I have to say I was a little surprised that Jessica Lynch actually made any comment about being wrongly used as a symbol. This shows a level of honesty you just don't expect to hear anymore.

I read somewhere that the Iraqi that helped rescue her came to visit her in her hometown and was turned away because she was too busy with her book deal. I wonder if she mentioned him as one of her heroes or if anyone even told her what this man did for her. I'm guessing she doesn't even know the full story of what happened to her.

Put me in the crowd that isn't particularly interested in seeing this story come out.

I'm grateful that Ms. Lynch was returned home but saddened by her capture and treatment. It is clear to me that American's POW treatment follows the Geneva Convention and some of these other countries do not play by the same rules (Vietnam, anyone?).

I'm not so naive to think that all our soldiers treat POWs by the Geneva Convention, but I think by and large they are treated much better when captured by Americans than by some of these other nations.

The person I heard vilify Lynch the most was Michael Savage who went on day after day about how she wasn't a hero and shouldn't get so much attention (he has a habit of giving lots of attention to things he thinks shouldn't attention).

I only listened to him a few minutes this week, so I haven't heard his reaction to the latest news.

The "anti-war crowd" was critical of the pentagon propaganda, not Lynch.

Erin, the opportunist's story was dubious from the beginning. (I wrote a blog item mocking it some influential blogs picked up back then.) Pfc. Lynch says she has no memory of him being around at all, though she recalls the people who took care of her in the hospital.

Diva, you need to back off of calling Ms. Lynch names. I'm trying to make nice with you, and I don't even mind you calling me dumb names.

Ms. Lynch, however, got shot up and probably raped while defending the country, including YOU. She acted like an "opportunist" by taking the opportunity to go defend the freedom of ingrates.

It does annoy me when smug liberal dipshits who have done nothing to help the country except to look for every opportunity to run interference for our enemies look for opportunities to claim some cheap moral superiority over the people who are trying to do the job.

Particularly, I'd like to slap the taste out of the mouths of all the jackasses who have been so anxious to tear down this brave soldier. It may be somewhat obnoxious to see her situation being used for PR by the military, but at least this does not involve cutting a soldier down.

She was obviously a brave soldier even without being able to empty a gun into her oncoming attackers to give a proper Hollywood touch to the story.

Since then, she seems to have been very careful to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. What more do you want? She's been through this horrible ordeal, and will probably be at least somewhat physically impaired for the rest of her life. You would begrudge her a simple book deal to get her story out straight for the record and try to get a few bucks to take care of herself?

Who called Pfc. Lynch a name? I was referring to the Iraqi who claims to have rescued her. His story does not make sense. He appears to be an opportunist who talks a good game.

Read closer, Barger. According to a reliable commenter, Pfc.'s biggest critic has been a Right Winger, Michael Savage. You are barking up the wrong tree.

Hmm, I may have missed your target in this case, Ms. Diva. My bad.

On the other hand, almost ALL of the tearing down of Lynch has definitely come from left wingers.

Savage is simply a jackass, regardless of his political affiliation. I doubt very many self-described conservatives- much less libertarians- would claim Savage for one of their own.

I haven't heard him speak about Ms. Lynch, but he's such a hater generally that it doesn't much surprise me.

J.R. As in Vietnam, weapons jammed all the time,especially early in the war.
Apparently the tolerances on the M-16
were too close together. This would cause a jam by the mere introduction of some dirt,a common occurance in battle.
In the desert some sand will do the same thing and i believe much easier during the sand storms that were broad cast during the war. The same thing happened during the first Gulf War.

That's what I was afraid of.

It seems to me that the military ought to be worried more about reliability than features on their standard issue rifles. Pfc. Lynch wasn't a sharp-shooter, she just needed the weapon that worked when her life was in danger. Imagine the army puts people through basic training, ships them around the world, supplies them with all manner of survival gear, comes up with elaborate battle plans, sends them into enemy territory in expensive all-terrain vehicles, and what happens when they come under fire? The damn gun doesn't shoot!

War has always been almost comically frought with error, screw ups, human and mechanical failure, disloyalty, fratricide, and the like. What is remarkable is how efficient the current U.S. military has become in eliminating these age-old problems. The astonishingly effective military campaign in Iraq (the one that ended with the taking of Bagdhad, not the current follow up) has put the U.S. military in an entirely different quantum from any previous military, even our own of ten years ago. This is both deeply satisfying and a little bit chilling. They'll get that gun-jamming thing worked out too.

I doubt if the gun jammed. Thats just what you say when you're crapping your pants and you can't find the trigger.