Jessica Lynch, you disappoint me...

Great Debates
#1

OK I was a bit dubious at first, you being called a “hero” and all. I mean, I respect you sense of duty and your perseverance during extremely difficult times while you were a POW.

I even stood up for you when my Vietnam vet step-father said all you did was “screw up” and usually that meant you would be dead, not made into a hero.

But we needed a soldier to represent the face of the American Military men and women in this war. You were it.

But let’s remember, if it were not for the true heroism of Mohammed al-Rehaief venturing across the battlefield not once or twice, but three times so that US forces could locate you and the graves of your fallen comrades, you would most likely be dead now.

So Mr. al-Rehaief comes to visit you. And you are too busy to see him. Shame on you.

Am I being hard on her? Doesn’t it seem she would be anxious to meet him and thank him and eager to help him in any way possible?

#2

I thought she had conveniently lost her memory ?! How can she be writing a freakin book ?

#3

I read that on CNN and thought WTF? She was reportedly too busy with physical therapy and writing her memoirs according to her lawyer.

“Thanks for the life saving stuff and all, but ta ta now…”

#4

Gotta love it. Ham sandwiches for lunch during Ramadan!
Bwahaha!

#5

What do you expect her to do? She was caught up in a lie of not her making. A pawn of propaganda.

#6

What kind of cut-rate propaganda creates a symbol, and then has that symbol do something so heartless? If I was running that propaganda campaign, I would have them meet in private. Then it wouldn’t really matter what they said. I mean, even though hindsight is always 20/20, that’s just disappointing. And not very intelligent to boot.

#7

Is there a debate here? Seems like Pit material to me.

#8

Okay, how about “Should Jessica Lynch appear in Playboy?”

#9

Well it won’t be in uniform… :smiley: How about posing with a rifle ?

#10

This is my rifle, this is my gun, one is for fighting…

Sorry. Blame Kubrick.

#11

Funny coincidence: in the Marine Corps “Inspection Arms,” the step where one pulls the M16 charging handle was colloquially called the titty pincher.

#12

Yeah real dissapointing and such a shame. A young woman decides to join the army out of some sense of patriotism, risks her life and almost dies, can you believe that?! And now it turns out she’s not a big hero, she’s a person! WOW! How dare she eh? I’m sorry if I offend, but really, how does this affect you at all? So she didn’t do the smart thing and almost died, she’s human. And now based on about half a page of information you have decided that she’s a fraud and a dissapointment to the country? Who’s problem is that? to get dissapointed you have to get your hopes up first, no one forced you to do that. Once again I apologize if this offends, I’m just tired of seeing people judged eachother based on 15 second sound bites.

#13

I thought that it was some Muslim organization that was able to bring the guy over here and show America’s appreciation, etc, etc. It’s not really Ms. Lynch’s fault if she’s not physically able to enjoy his presence at this time. The article I read said she wanted to meet him, but was planning on doing it at a later time.

#14

Oh sheesh.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2003/October/28/LNspot.htm
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2003/October/25/LNtop1.htm

If I were going to meet the man who saved my life, which would undoubtedly be an emotional reunion, there is no way I would want to do it in front of a crowd of thousands of onlookers. There are some moments that should be experienced privately, when you have hours to enjoy with someone and talk without a lot of cameras in your face. Mohammed will probably have to sneak back into the state when he meets her privately because WVians are all but ready to build the man a house if he’ll move here. (They actually offered to in Palestine.) He’s the most wanted man in WV, in a good way. There’s no way he can make a trip here publicly to meet her, the media wouldn’t have the decency to leave them alone.

Two, Friends of Mohammed sponsored this whole thing. The Ramadan thing that was mentioned probably went as follows: food was served at a reception for him, and there happened to be ham sandwiches there. He didn’t eat because it’s Ramadan, which FOM already KNEW, because some of them are Muslims, however they wanted to feed the umpteen other people who were going to show up at the reception, who WEREN’T fasting for Ramadan and have no restrictions regarding pork.

This Marcus Warren guy can kiss my ass for his blatantly slanted reporting and insinuation that a group of West Virginians would be too stupid to look at the calendar, realize it’s Ramadan and then proceed to try to serve a Muslim a ham sandwich.

#15

Questions/thoughts I had while reading:

  1. Lynch is probably under seige by reporters and just general kooks - is she deciding who gets to see her, or does she have “handlers”? If the latter, one of them might have gotten over-protective.

  2. If there’s a planned later meeting and everyone involved is cool with that, then that’s OK with me, too.

  3. W.VA. is hardly a bastion of diversity. Yes, they have satellite TV and watch CNN, but at least when my family lived there (briefly) most folks had almost no real contact with anyone who wasn’t Protestant Christian. Visiting my in-laws, who live a little further south in Virginia and Tennessee, things have improved a little but not much. My in-laws are exactly the sort who live on pork products (I even had a thread about that after my last visit to them, Enough With the Pork Products Already!) I could see them fixing a ham-and-cheese sandwhich for a Jewish or Muslim visitor out of… .well, not ignorance but just the sheer inertia of their own eating habits.

  4. Jessica Lynch was turned into a “hero” by the news media. Now that they’ve made her image into something she’s not, they now feel compelled to destroy that image.

  5. This sort of thing makes me feel better about being unkown to the media at large. Who wants to be famous if it just makes you look like a turd and causes you misery and discomfort?

#16

Wow… I checked my calendar and it doesn’t say RAMADAN on it… I do know what Ramadan is… but when is another story. These simple folk wouldn’t know better anyway. Just doing what they would do for anyone.

#17

You are targeting the wrong person…target the media…

The media created them both, gave them both deals for their stories etc…

The media is now creating a new story…

I just don’t understand how she could write a story about being a POW when she claimed all along she “couldn’t remember”

#18

Oh, perhaps her life up to the point where the memory gap begins and her life afterwards?

#19

It was a farce from the very beginning.

#20

During and shortly after horrible traumas, the human mind can use the defense mechanism of blocking out things so you can cope and don’t go insane. Later as a person gets out of that situation and trauma, they can remember more things. I’m not saying Ms. Lynch did or did not do this, I’m just saying this might be what’s going on.

I’m assuming Jessica Lynch’s book is not only about the time she was captured up until she was rescued. Probably some stuff in there about her growing up, experiences in the military, things after her rescue, conclusions and thoughts about facts people told her about things she can’t remember. ??

I certainly can’t climb into another person’s head and know what they are thinking and feeling. All I know is she and other soldiers served our country there, did their jobs, some got shat on and some didn’t. Another thing I know is that I WASN’T one of them. All of 'em are heroes doing a job I would never want to do. Thank god for folks that want to and are willing to do those jobs.

So I’m not gonna spew crap out of my mouth about someone’s experience I know nothing about.