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Time Magazine presents 10 Questions for Jessica Lynch.
Question two is interesting (all-caps in original):
LOOKING BACK, DO YOU FEEL YOU WERE USED BY THE MILITARY TO INCREASE AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR THE WAR IN ITS EARLY STAGES?The better question might be "Do you feel you were used by large media conglomerates to increase ratings, sell newspapers and magazines, and ultimately create a best-selling book?" And the best question might be "Is it true you want to get on with your life without us hounding you?"I think I provided a way to boost everybody's confidence about the war. I was used as a symbol. They could show the war was going great because "we rescued this person." It doesn't bother me anymore. It used to. Through my book [I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, written by Rick Bragg], I have been able to set the record straight. I did what I could do and now let the record speak for itself.
But her response to the question as posed doesn't read like a complaint - "used" was the reporter's term, and "I was used as a symbol" seems accurate, but not in the sense the reporter meant "used". More on that later, but first a look at the media reporting on itself. The Agence France Presse coverage of the Time interview gets this screaming headline: Ex-POW Jessica Lynch says US used her as Iraq war symbol. And the reporter's question "magically disappears":
Former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, whose capture and rescue in the early days of the Iraq war turned her into a US icon, said in an interview that the US government had used her as an upbeat symbol in the conflict.That's a re-write of an answer to a loaded question - remember "used" was the Time reporter's word choice in the first place. An obvious effort to turn up the volume of that original comment to eleven."I think I provided a way to boost everybody's confidence about the war," Lynch told Time magazine.
<...>
Lynch, who has previously criticized the official US government portrayal of her rescue, said her book "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," written by Rick Bragg, allowed her to "set the record straight" about her March 23, 2003 capture and rescue nine days later.
Coincidentally, Jessica Lynch made a simultaneous "appearance" in this NY Times report complaining about the government's "refusal" to publicize "heroes" in the war on terror:
Perhaps, some experts said, the military knows that promotion will attract unwanted scrutiny. After the heroic tales of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and Sgt. Pat Tillman were largely debunked - with Private Lynch shown to have never fired a shot during her capture and rescue in Iraq, and Sergeant Tillman killed accidentally by fellow Americans, not the enemy, in Afghanistan - the Pentagon may have grown cautious.A quick side note: neither Lynch nor Tillman are any less heroic in my mind than they ever were - but obviously others see them as diminished. So it goes.
I'm not sure how "the military" could have avoided publicizing the fact that Lynch had been rescued. The degree of that publicity was determined solely by the media - and they knew they had a compelling story. Once the military announces "we've rescued Jessica Lynch" the newspapers determine where that belongs in their publications and the networks determine exactly where (and if) that story fits into their evening broadcast. In short, this story was "pulled" by the media more than it was "pushed" by the Pentagon. If the Pentagon is choosing headlines for the NY Times or cover photos for Time magazine I'd like to know - I'll do everything in my power to restore their freedom to publish what they see fit.
To the best of my knowledge Lynch underwent treatment and a long recovery - and was medically retired from the Army without ever being "used" in any way other than as a response to press inquiries. If anyone can provide some evidence of the Pentagon pushing this story or sending Pvt Lynch on a PR tour please do so. Yes - for many Jessica Lynch was "the story" of the early days of the Iraq campaign, but this was not a time when the military was desperate for positive coverage or in need of "good news" - from the military standpoint the news from Iraq could hardly have been better, it was victory piled on victory after all.
To see it spun otherwise now seems little more than a bitter attempt to rewrite that history.
