I have been sick to death of the Jessica Lynch rescue story... the maudlin, sacharine, manipulative movie that's coming out this Sunday (yes, I haven't seen the movie, but I HAVE seen the previews. All I can say is, "ECH!")... the distorted coverage... the lies of the Pentagon... etc, etc.
Now that Ms. Lynch has started speaking for herself, I have to say that I have a lot of respect for her.
Here are some quotes from a recent interview:
"It does [bother me] that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff... It's wrong."
"I don't know why they filmed it, or why they say the things they [say], you know. ... All I know was that I was in that hospital hurting. ... I needed help. I wanted out of there. It didn't matter to me if they would have come in shirts and blank guns; it wouldn't have mattered to me. I wanted out of there."
"It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about... Only I would have been able to know that, because the other four people on my vehicle aren't here to tell that story. So I would have been the only one able to say ... I went down shooting. But I didn't."
As usual, the government is blaming other people for the inaccurate coverage and bullshit and saying they had nothing to do with it. The person who actually got hurt (she still has health problems and is on crutches) actually has the balls (ok, ovaries!) to take responsibility. She doesn't call herself a hero. But in the era of Dubya II, it seems like just being honest is heroic, especially when I'm sure there was much pressure on her to spin things the way the chickenhawks wanted. (I hope they don't cut her health coverage.)
--> CNN,www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/07/lynch.interview/index.html
