A lot of us would agree with you about the other POWs, regardless of sex or degree of superficial attractiveness. They could be warty and green and IMO they’d still be heroes.
The Iraqi leadership which forces people to fight or get shot, or have their families tormented, are far from heroes. For the poor schlubs faced with that choice, I have only sympathy, but I don’t know that I’d call them heroes.
If we can hold on just a minute here, PFC Lynch can be fairly argued to have done her duty in a commendable manner. If action above and beyond the call of duty is the exclusive standard for heroism then we are going to have damn few heroes around here. Beyond fighting until physically overwhelmed (and I am unsure of the source for this since all the witness are either Iraqi soldiers, or dead, or Iraqi POWs – I understand that PFC Lynch isn’t talking) what would you have her do to qualify for herohood? Let us assume that she fought until overwhelmed – isn’t that enough. Do we have some sort of Rambo standard that must be met or exceeded before we can admire this young soldier’s fortitude and endurance?
If I can trust the unit patches shown in newspaper photos, PFC Lynch and the others were at least attached to the 32d Army Air Defense Commend (my old outfit) as missile maintenance, not supply.
While they may have been support people, they are still soldiers who gave their last measure of devotion. That PFC Lynch isn’t dead or a POW is largely a matter of luck. They, and she, deserve respect for that.
I think everyone over there fighting admist the fear of death are heroic.
I feel real sadness over the dead POWs. The survivors are always the ones who are remembered (and deservingly so), but I think the ones who didn’t make it out of there were also heroic.
Yes, the word “hero” is overused. But so is “fear”. So is “hell”. So is “survivor”. Lynch and her fellow soldiers have all been to a physical and spiritual place where these things aren’t simply hyperbole anymore. Thus, I don’t feel like it’s inappropriate to call her or anyone else over there a hero. I just hope they all come back soon.
Candidly, I’m not sure I would at that age, either, still less now that I’m old, fat and lazy. OTOH, my grandad was younger than that when he was in the trenches, and that involved standing his ground while being shot at, shelled, and at least the threat of being gassed, not just for the length of time it takes to pop off a magazine of caps but for months on end. I believe he had some campaign medals to show for it, but it didn’t make him a national hero… not such as to be front-page news. And I seem to remember the average age of the US combatant in VietNam was n-n-n-n-n-nineteen, too. So let’s praise her for whatever courage she did show, and, as I said, let’s all be thankful they got her out alive… but let’s not cheapen the word “hero” too much.
Ehh… don’t be so prissy. The whole rape issue has been thoroughly beaten out in this thread, and I hardly need to reiterate the arguments. Why was she still around and her colleagues weren’t? Feh - who knows? Because she was non-fatally injured at the scene and the others were killed outright? That doesn’t, in and of itself, make her a hero.
I’m just glad that she got back to her family, and that she has the oppertunity to rebuild her life. She has my respect for being willing to go and fight for her beliefs, even if she didn’t expect to be actually “fighting” as such. She was in a dangerous situation and did the best that she could.
That makes her a good soldier, and she has all the adulation and reward that entails coming to her.
Personally I’m firmly of the belief that ‘hero’ is overused nowadays. I do think that ‘hero’ ought to equal ‘above and beyond the call of duty.’ That said, I further think that some jobs are specifically heroic because the nature of those jobs require putting oneself in harms way in protection of people or society. In other words, IMO, all cops, firefighters and combat soldiers are heroes. By the way, up to now I haven’t called PFC Lynch a hero. When I’ve spoken of her I’ve called her what she called herself – an American soldier. I have no higher praise. I am proud of her. I am proud of them all.
monstro, you mentioned that the survivors are always the ones who are remembered. Hopefully the majority of people still realize what Memorial Day is supposed to be all about.
How is it that we, sitting here in our armchairs, can even dare to determine who is and who isn’t a hero or whose actions in a foreign country fighting a war in which we have no experience are deemed heroic enough.
Are you kidding me?!
It seems to me that the only ones who can say if she isn’t are her peers.
Its the reasons that she is being branded a hero that we are examining. She makes a nice posterchild for the Army. She is being paraded as a hero by the media because of what she is, (a pretty teenage girl) rather than what she went through. Its as if the media is amazed that a young female would be able to defends herself. she didn’t defy expectation, because the Army expects all its soldiers to react the way she did.
If it was a mid thirties male it wouldn’t warrant any more that a days attention.
I think the fact that she is a pretty teenage girl shouldn’t make any difference. She is a soldier, “combative” or “non-combative” she should have been trained in how to react to the situation she was in.
as I said earlier, I’m glad that she is alive, and I hope she can put her life together.
Seems like the media are the ones calling her a hero. While I haven’t read every military press release on the subject, I would be surprised if the Army has called her a hero…not to say they haven’t, just I might have missed it.
I think the greater message is one of “Our 19 year old girls can kick your butts!”
When the dust has settled and the surviving members of her outfit (assuming they are still surviving when the dust settles) have a chance to comment on the actions of Pvt. Lynch we may have a better account of her actions. Maybe she did something heroic, maybe some of them did something equally or more heroic.
Let’s not forget that the Iraqis hold another female soldier POW, Spc. Shoshana Nyree Johnson . If she survives, she may be able to give the world a lesson in bravery. And we will se if a 30 year old black woman can be treated as a media darling.
Duke - the problem is that she shouldn’t be singled out because of her gender. Women soldiers want equality, not special treatment.
The message “one of our girls can kick your butt” is immensely patronising to women, specifically women soldiers. The implication is that it’s more shameful to be butt-kicked by a woman, because women aren’t as good as men. Imagine how regular female troops would feel about that.
We should be equally concerned about the plight of male and female soldier POWs.
I wasn’t trying to be patronizing towards women in the military, but like it or not most guys wouldn’t like to admit they had their butts kicked by a 19 year old girl…military or not.
It’s not a question of whether or not women are “as good as men”, rather that men have for centuries gone to war to protect their women and children. Now that women around the world are being given the opportunity to fight in the military along side men, I would certainly hope they would prove to be fierce fighters. Looks like at least some are.
Given the views towards women in some countries in that area, it would seem to me that an even greater stigma would be attached to said butt whooping.
I am equally concerned about both male and female POWs…I just hope the Iraqis share my concerns.
Anybody know how many female Iraqi soldies we have captured??
I really doubt that there are any female Iraqui soldiers at all.
Is Jessica Lynch a hero? Maybe, maybe not - depends on your definition of a hero.
Is she a hero in the classical, mythological sense - probably not.
Is she a hero (or heroine) in today’s world? My definition of a hero in today’s world would be standing up for what you believe in, making it though an unimaginable ordeal, and living to tell about it.
Come to think about it, maybe she does fit a mythological definition as well.
She (and all soldiers who are involved in this conflict, male or female) are doing something that I am scared shitless to do voluntarily myself.
Duke - I didn’t mean your views per se, just media/people generally.
I think if she is heroic for anything, it is her youth and inexperience. Despite it being her first war, despite being so young, she held her own. That I think does deserve special recognition, not gender.
A large part of this hero worship comes from the military itself. As posters have mentioned the pilot who was shot down over Bosnia, Scott O’grady was made a hero by the Air Force as well as the media. The AF paraded him all over the country against his wishes, as he stated himself his rescuers were the real heroes. The first female fighter pilots were also made into media stars against their wishes, all they wanted was to do their jobs without special attention.
One thing that is very special about the Lynch case is the rescue of POWs in war time, this is almost unheard of.
I think this is a huge part of it, now that I think about it – yours is a pretty insightful comment. Let’s face it, the rise of Chicks Who Kick Butt ™ has been one of the big sea changes in popular culture, from Ripley kicking alien ass to Buffy fighting the undead. We’re far removed from the days when the female lead in an action film existed solely to exclaim “my hero” when the male lead rescued her.
So what do we have with Pvt. Lynch? A cute, pert young gal who fought until she ran out of ammo, then exhibited mental toughness in captivity, possibly while being tortured. In short, a Chick Who Kicks Butt ™. If she didn’t exist in real life, the entertainment folks would have to invent her.
Her family situation helps, too. She’s from the ironically-named town of Palestine. Her parents and relatives are evidently downhome salt-of-the-earth types. They speak with just the right amount of West Virginia twang. Their house is modest, their neighbors friendly. It’s a goddamn Norman Rockwell painting come to life.
I think that if Pfc. Lynch came from a cookie-cutter house in some anonymous New Jersey suburb, her dad a regional manager for some multinational conglomorate and her mom a loan officer at the local bank, her story would not be getting anywhere near as much play as it has. America loves the small town mythos.
None of the above should be read to denigrate Pfc. Lynch or her family at all, BTW. She has served her country well; her family loves and supports her. Neither sought out this publicity. As far as I can see, both Pfc. Lynch and her family have acted with commendable decorum. I can think of little more which anyone could ask of them.
See, I’ve been praying for those seven soldiers ever since I heard of the video of their interrogation and torture. When I saw her photo, I said to Mr. Rilch, “Tough looking sister—I hope she gives them a real hard time.” If she does survive, I see little to no possibility of anyone patronizing her.