A child named Lynch

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-11-14 01:05pm

Firstly, I hope this post fits this forum. It addresses events that are currently political news, but since it's about the morality angle, I'm uncertain of which fits the best.

Anyway, my mailbox just spat out the latest issue of TIME Europe, our prime source for all Bush regime propaganda. It features a reasonably prettified photo of a supply clerk turned accident victim known as Jessica Lynch.

Apparently, when if first happened, the initial story was that Lynch fought and wounded several Iraqi soldiers before rendered unconscious by shock and blood loss. This made Lynch a hero back home, it seems. They now had a Real American Hero, and could sell Lynch-flavored chewing gum. Glee!

Then, the story was embarrassedly amended, until it turns out that what Lynch did as a hero was... to flip over in a truck and get herself knocked out.

Still she is a hero to the American public. And I can't help but wonder if this is solely because she's female and in the army.

No, I'm not denigating the absolute horror and helplessness of captivity. But I am wondering why they make her out to be a hero. According to the previous article they had on her in TIME, as well as other articles, she seemed no more than a child playing with grown-up toys, oblivious to the real dangers of battle.

This, while there are real, and competent female soldiers out there numbering in the thousands, or even tens of thousands, who dislike being favouritised or coddled. Female soldiers... who aren't painfully sheltered or damsels in distress.

Now, it is possible (in fact, from what I have heard of the US armed forces even likely) that such integration simply doesn't work in the US army or navy. I hope that's not true, but from here it's difficult to tell.

What I'm trying to say is, why make Lynch out to be some sort of martyr when what she went through is no worse than many, many others experienced... unless you want to say that something about her makes her her worthy of special treatment, protection, and support? Such as, oh, say, her being a woman?

And if she is that helpless, I can't help but find it disgusting to throw a girl-child like Lynch into battle like that and then using her ordeal as an excuse for a PR campaign. All I do know is that it hasn't really helped anyone, except the vultures.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-11-14 02:48pm

No, I'm not denigating the absolute horror and helplessness of captivity. But I am wondering why they make her out to be a hero.

Because the media are jackals and wanted some one cute and photogenic to swarm after. If you look at almost all the outrageous and moronic claims they stem from John Q Reporter of one stripe or another.

I think the real truth of it was she was a young, not very well trained REMF who got stuck in the middle of a combat zone. She was hardly a hero the conservative side has made her out to be but neither is she the incompetent but gold digging bimbo the liberal side has made her out to be either.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-11-14 02:56pm

The liberals have made her out to be a gold digging bimbo? I'd say you're full of shit.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-14 03:07pm

What's the point of this? You're treading trodden trails.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-11-15 01:25am

Durran Korr wrote:What's the point of this? You're treading trodden trails.

Ah, really? Then perhaps you'd care to elaborate, as I made a lot of points. To casually try to brush them all aside like you do seems awfully like a rhetorical trick, and a piss poor one at that.

Post by **AdmiralKanos** » 2003-11-15 01:40am

How is it liberal bullshit to say that she was incompetent? I thought the latest story was that her weapon jammed because she couldn't be bothered to take proper care of it despite being in a warzone, and she was on her knees praying during the firefight while her squadmates fought and died. If the latest account is true, it seems to me that she was incompetent.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-15 01:43am

I'm sorry, Eleas. You do make good points here. It's just that I've been hearing about this story constantly now and I'm bloody sick and tired of it. Yes, the Pentagon fucked up and made this girl a hero when they shouldn't have, Americans are stupid ignorant sheeple for buying into it Orwell Big Brother propaganda blah blah <insert Nazi comparison> blah yadda yadda yadda. I'm not speaking to you, because it seems like you wanted to offer some insight onto the role of females in the military rather than just harp on the Lynch story, and I knee-jerked a response.

So yeah, I was wrong to just brush aside your post.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-11-15 08:54am

Durran Korr wrote:I'm sorry, Eleas. You do make good points here. It's just that I've been hearing about this story constantly now and I'm bloody sick and tired of it. Yes, the Pentagon fucked up and made this girl a hero when they shouldn't have, Americans are stupid ignorant sheeple for buying into it Orwell Big Brother propaganda blah blah <insert Nazi comparison> blah yadda yadda yadda. I'm not speaking to you, because it seems like you wanted to offer some insight onto the role of females in the military rather than just harp on the Lynch story, and I knee-jerked a response.

So yeah, I was wrong to just brush aside your post.

'sokay. I was fucking tired, and shouldn't have snapped. You're not the only one with hinged knees.

And I hear they made a movie about the rescue, too. About the best thing that could be done, I guess, is to purge this story from the bloody system entirely.