The Story of Jessica Lynch could have been yanked from a Ludlum novel. The American defence department (the Pentagon) had been looking for a handful of soldiers whose macho deeds could embolden American support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For long they had search everywhere on the two battle fronts without coming up with a genuine case of some heroic deed by one of their soldiers. Soon enough two candidates landed straight on the laps of the generals at the Pentagon. Not exactly good cases, but the Pentagon thought it could turn them around to serve its purpose. And using their powerful PR machinery and the global media at their disposal, the whole world was bombarded with the “heroic deeds” of two soldiers: Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman.
Well Jessica, pictured above right, was a US female army private, who probably needs a refresher course on how to clean guns. This is judging by her admission of her jammed gun during a gun battle with Iraqi insurgents. That’s the worst nightmare a soldier can ever face. She was badly injured in the exchange of fire with the Iraqis during an ambush and when her gun jammed Jessica lied down and began to pray. She was picked by the Iraqis and taken to hospital. Much later she was found at the hospital by another platoon of American soldiers.
The pentagon turned this story upside down by saying that Jessica fought the Iraqis until she was captured. They also said American soldiers organised a dare devil rescue mission that gallantly freed Jessica.
Well that was the story back in 2003. In 2004 Pat Tillman was shot by friendly fire ( read: a fellow American fired the shot) but the Pentagon hid the facts and turned the story up side down so as to portray him as a hero.
The US Congress got a hint of these lies and is now investigating the issue under the eagle eyes of Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. His committee has accused US government of inventing sensational details and stories regarding the two soldiers. Of course Jessica Lynch had let the cat out in her testimony during the congressional hearings and had distanced herself from the attempt by Pentagon to portray her as a war hero.
Check out this Aljazeera page for the whole story.
# posted by hajia @ 10:11 am
