Oh my I just saw the first commercial for the "Jessica Lynch story" (does she really deserve a story?) --- horrible absolutely horrible I am surprised Bushy isn't making a cameo appearance as part of the rescue team draped in a US flag. Yuck.
Heres an article on Jessica Lynch's comrade-in-arms. Insult to injury: raw deal for Jessica Lynch's black comrade-in-arms By Lee Hockstader in Austin, Texas October 25, 2003 Shot through both legs and held prisoner in Iraq for 22 days, Shoshana Johnson returned home to a difficult convalescence that lacked the media fury and official hype that attended her friend and comrade in arms Jessica Lynch. Depressed, scarred, haunted by the trauma of her captivity and at times unable to sleep, Specialist Johnson walks with a limp and has difficulty standing for long. Now that she is on the verge of her discharge, the US Army is aggravating her injury, her parents say. While Private Lynch was discharged in August with an 80 per cent disability benefit, Specialist Johnson learnt last week she will receive a 30 per cent disability benefit from the army for her injuries. The difference, which amounts to $US700 ($1000) a month in payments, has infuriated Specialist Johnson and her family. They have enlisted the help of the Reverend Jesse Jackson to take their case to the news media, accusing the army of double standards, insensitivity and racism - Private Lynch is white; Specialist Johnson is black. "Race clearly is a factor," said Mr Jackson, who will take up Specialist Johnson's cause with the White House, the Pentagon and members of Congress. "Here's a case of two women, same [unit], same war - everything about their service commitment and their risk is equal . . . Yet there's an enormous contrast between how the military has handled these two cases." Claude Johnson, Shoshana Johnson's father and himself an army veteran, said his family did not begrudge Private Lynch her celebrity or her disability payments. But he said he believed his daughter should also get what she was due. He believes the army owes her more than the 30 per cent of disability benefit, which translates into 30 per cent of her base monthly pay - or about $US500. "There is [a double standard]," Mr Johnson said. Specialist Johnson is 30, has a three-year-old daughter and has been living at home. She will not speak publicly about the terms of her discharge. But her parents said she was stunned and angered when the army informed her of its decision on her disability. When her unit blundered into an ambush in Iraq on March 23, 11 of its soldiers were killed. Six, including Private Lynch and Specialist Johnson, were taken prisoner. In a videotape taken shortly after their capture, Specialist Johnson appeared terrified, her eyes darting back and forth among her captors. Private Lynch was rescued on April 2. Her colleagues were released on April 13. The Washington Post
TESTIFY FREAK this Lynch girl is showing no gratitude for what this doctor did for her. She is no hero to me, all she did was get captured. The doctor and the men who rescued her are the real heroes. What makes me sick is people calling her a hero, what the hell did she do to deserve that title. Now there is gonna be a movie about her and I am sure people will start buying it as genuine. She gets rich, while the soldiers who saved her are probaly still dodging bullets in Iraq
I always think it's bizarre when POW's are treated as heroes for being captured. It's great that they were recovered alive, but Lynch's true story doesn't compare to her squad mates who died leaving behind kids or have lifelong injuries. On a similiar note, there's an article at slate on the overuse of the word hero, in this case for firefighters.
I think the reason Jessica doesn't talk much to the media is because she would have to reveal all the hype is false, unfortunately. The Rest of the 507th By Eric Slater, Times Staff Writer FT. CARSON. Colo. — As former POW Jessica Lynch and her agents prepare for the release later his month of her $1 million memoir, the airing of her first television interview, and a TV movie about the attack on the Army's 507th Maintenance Company, the soldier considered by many to be the 507th's greatest hero is enjoying more modest rewards. Reduced-priced license plates, just $3, for receiving the Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War medal. A Kansas City Royals game ball. "And I get to go on free trips -- that's the best part," Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, said recently, a typically colossal wad of chewing tobacco in his cheek. To Topeka for a parade, to Las Vegas for the Academy of Country Music Awards, to Florida soon, he hopes, and Alaska. At sunrise on the morning of March 23, the vehicles and soldiers of the 507th were being torn apart in perhaps the most infamous ambush of the Iraq war. Miller, a lanky, bespectacled welder whose marksmanship skills had been mediocre before the battle, his bravery, like that of the others, untested, set out alone to wreak havoc and terror on a contingent of Iraqis who were trying to lob mortars on several of the soldiers, and had an easy, 50-yard shot. After he and four others were taken prisoners, Miller convinced the Iraqis that the numbers on a scrap of paper they found in his helmet -- the unit's secret radio frequencies -- were just prices for power-steering pumps; the Iraqis tossed the scrap into a fire. And for three weeks he set about irking their captors with tone-deaf renditions of country singer Toby Keith's anti-terrorist anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." The Army investigated the ambush and determined Miller "may have killed as many as nine Iraqi combatants." With a seemingly inherent aversion to speculation or bragging, the small-town Kansan has no doubt about what he did or did not do, how many he killed or wounded: "Seven in the mortar pit, one in the tree line, and I ran over one guy." If it wasn't for his actions during the ambush, which earned Miller one of the military's highest awards, the Silver Star, several soldiers feel certain they would not have survived. "We were all down, most of us wounded, and I looked up and saw Miller running by, bullets and rockets everywhere," recalled former POW Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30. "I said, `Miller, get down!' He said, `I gotta go, I gotta return fire' . . . We were a big target and if they'd have got off a mortar round we'd have all been dead. I tell you, Miller, ol' country boy, saved us." As Lynch, whose rescue from an Iraqi hospital became one of the most dramatic stories of the war, readies for her media blitz, most of her fellow soldiers caught in the ambush have returned to their jobs: cooking, supplying radar parts and toilet paper, fixing broken axels. They are back making $25,000 or $29,000 a year, some appearing at the occasional parade or other event, and struggling -- hard, in some cases -- with badly damaged body parts, memories of imprisonment, and of seeing their friends, as one put it, "shot so badly they were in pieces." Eleven soldiers died in the battle, five were captured and nine were wounded, including some of those captured and some who were rescued or escaped. Few from the 507th seem to resent the diminutive Lynch's fame and fortune. Separated from the other POWs and badly injured when her Humvee crashed, "Jessica is a hero in every way. Tiny little thing, she survived all that by herself. It's amazing," Johnson said, summing up the sentiments of many from the unit. At the same time, some are less than pleased with the way the Pentagon and media have handled Lynch's story. Both got much of it wrong in the beginning, erroneously reporting that she fought to her last bullet despite gunshot and stab wounds, when in fact she was likely unconscious and probably did not fire a shot, investigators say. "It wasn't accurate but it was a good story, and people high, high in the Pentagon got involved," said one 507th soldier, who asked not to be identified. When she was rescued, Lynch's fame grew. And the military and the media, some members of the 507th say, have focused so much on her that they have failed to tell the stories of others who fought, died, were wounded or captured in the same battle. "When they rescued Jessica, that gave everyone a lot of hope because people still didn't know where we were, if we were still alive," said Johnson, a friend of Lynch's. "(The military and media) put a lot into that story and there wasn't too much left once we were rescued. I don't blame anyone though. "You want to know what the greatest injustice is?" Johnson continued. "Miller hasn't even been promoted." After nearly three days and nights on the road, the 18 vehicles and 31 soldiers of the 507th -- plus two soldiers from another unit -- passed through a dark and quiet Nasiriyah about 5 a.m. The convoy took a now well-known wrong turn. Then another. Nearly two hours passed as the convoy felt about in the dark. Meanwhile, Iraqi irregular and Fedayeen Saddam fighters gathered ambush, according to Army investigators and members of the 507th. "The first time we moved through, no one was manning the fighting positions, no one was out," said Sgt. Curtis Campbell, who lost a fist-sized chunk of this left hamstring to an Iraqi round before being rescued. . "By the time the sun was coming up, the whole town, it seemed, was out, and suddenly the fighting positions were all manned." At about 7 a.m., as many as 200 Iraqis began firing on the 33 Americans with AK-47s, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The 507th had a single heavy machine gun, a .50-caliber, which failed immediately. The convoy broke into three groups, according to the Army investigative report. The first fought its way through the ambush and sped toward nearby Marine Task Force Tarawa, which organized a rescue mission. In the second group, all five vehicles were quickly riddled with bullet holes and torn apart by rockers, and five of the 10 soldiers wounded. With desert conditions causing weapons to malfunction -- a problem that hounded many of the soldiers of the 507th -- they were able to return only occasional bursts of fire. They would eventually be rescued by the Marines. At the end of the convoy, the third group was also being devastated by the attackers. Within minutes, several soldiers were dead, with more to die shortly. Lynch was injured -- fellow soldiers thought she was dead -- after the Humvee she was riding in was hit by an explosive and crashed into the back of another vehicle. The mythical story of Lynch may have begun around the time her Humvee crashed. After the ambush, the U.S. military intercepted a radio transmission describing a blond American woman who ferociously battled her attackers despite suffering gunshot and stab wounds. This was presumed to be Lynch, who was then missing, and the information was passed onto the media. The soldier described in the intercept may, in fact, have been a slim, blond male sergeant from Salem, Ore., 33-year-old Donald Walters, though no one knows for sure. His body -- with several bullet and stab wounds -- was later found near the battle site in a shallow grave. The Army has not determined the precise circumstances of his death, but investigators wrote: "There is some information to suggest that a U.S. soldier that could have been Walters fought his way south of Highway 16 toward a canal and was killed in action." Miller was driving a military tow truck when the ambush began, with Sgt. James Riley, 31, in the passenger's seat. The two stopped to pick up Walters and Pvt. Brandon Sloan, whose truck had become stuck in the sand. Under heavy fire, Sloan climbed aboard. Walters disappeared. Miller stomped on the throttle. Moments later, the truck, riddled with bullet holes, began to slow and the three were preparing to jump out when Sloan was shot in the forehead and died instantly. Miller and Riley took off running toward the vehicles of Lynch, Johnson and others. Riley dove behind a truck and took command of several soldiers, most of them wounded. Miller kept running. The reason, he said, was that he saw an Iraqi dump-truck just the other side of the highway. He figured he could get the truck running and spirit them away. As he neared, Miller dropped to his belly and crept up a sand berm. Peeking over the top, he saw the mortar pit right beside the dump truck. And he began his lone effort to pin down the Iraqi mortar men. As an Iraqi went to drop a round into the mortar tube, Miller fired and the man fell, he said. His M-16, however, jammed, and for the next hour, Miller would pop up, fire one round, and then drop back behind the berm to manually reload another. "They didn't realize where the fire was coming from," Miller said. "They just saw their guys fall every time they'd try to set up the mortar." After nearly an hour of pinning down the men around the mortar, according to investigators, Miller decided it was time check his back. He swept around, he said, and fired on an Iraqi approaching along a tree line. "That was the last guy I shot." When he turned back around, Miller said, numerous Iraqi fighters were closing on him. He threw his rifle as far as he could and raised his hands in the air. "I said, OK, you win. I kind of figured they'd shoot me right there, though." About the same time, Riley, commanding the soldiers that the Iraqis had been trying to kill with the mortar, decided it was time to give up. None of their weapons were working and most of them were wounded. He, too, raised his arms and stepped into the open. The Iraqis quickly took the Americans prisoner. Miller began irritating his captors immediately. After asking about the scrap of paper, the Iraqis wanted to know about his can of Skoal tobacco. "I told 'em my chew was candy. Two or three of them opened it up and started eating. Idiots," he said with a roll of his eyes. "They saw their breakfasts again." Over the next three weeks, the Iraqis moved their POWs to seven different locations. In each cell he was kept, Miller carved the name of his wife, Jessa, and two children, Tyler, 4, and Makenzie, 15 months. He got sick, prayed a bit, and belted out lyrics from "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." "This big dog will fight/When you rattle his cage/And you'll be sorry that you messed/With the U.S. of A." "I did that just to make `em mad," Miller said with a hint of a smile. "They'd tell me to sit down and shut up. I would, for a while." Investigations are continuing into possible war crimes committed by the Iraqi captors, and in interviews, the POWs and other members of the 507th were careful in describing the actions of the Iraqis. They said enough, however, to suggest the investigators have plenty to look at. When Iraqis captured wounded Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, another member of the company said, "They beat him up right there." In captivity, Johnson said, "From what I could hear -- I couldn't see -- Miller got it the worst. He was always mouthing off. And they knew he'd killed a lot of Iraqis." On their 11th day of captivity, the Iraqis took Miller's wedding ring. He went wild with anger. "They'd tell him to shut up and he'd say, "No! I want my wedding ring back! I want my wedding ring back!" Johnson said. "I finally said, "Miller, if you get your butt kicked over that wedding ring, your wife's going to kick your butt again." Early on an April morning, in a house the POWs would later learn was just outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, a door flew open and a voice in English commanded everyone to get down. Marines swarmed the room. "If you're an American," one Marine shouted, "stand up." The POWs were headed home. Johnson is seeking a disability discharge after being shot in both legs. Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, who was hit in the face with shrapnel and shot in the arm, is getting married this week. Riley is back at work, now at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Hudson, who suffered several wounds in the fighting, is also back at work, at the home of the 507th, Ft. Bliss., Texas. Miller was transferred over the summer to this post at the base of Pike's Peak. He moved his family into a small home on the post. On the living room wall above his Kelly-green Barcolounger, he hung his Silver Star, POW medal, and Purple Heart -- which he diminishes, saying he wasn't badly injured. "They say part of it is for emotional injuries. Whatever." At the center of the collection of awards is a poster memorializing the 507th. The eye is drawn to the unit's red flag, and a group-picture of the soldiers in their desert fatigues. It takes a moment to notice the ethereal, delicate images of the dead, hovering above the company. Miller spends his off-time these days playing with his kids, sitting in his big green chair. He hates the early hours of the Army but doesn't drink coffee to help him awake, preferring caffeine-free soda. He thinks about heading an Army motor pool. He fiddles occasionally with the wedding band the Army replaced for him. Miller doesn't talk much about what happened, what it felt like to raise his hands in surrender and expect to be shot, about how he was treated by his captors, about killing people and watching his friends be killed. His wife has a hard time hearing the stories, and he has a hard time telling them anyway. "It doesn't bother me if I don't think about," Miller said. "So I don't think about it much."
If FDR didn't start WW2 with Germany and Japan, countless Americans wouldn't have died and countless Japanese wouldn't have lost their lives in a completely unethical and immoral attack using the A-bomb. Worst President ever. If JFK didn't start Vietnam, countless Americans wouldn't have died. Worst President ever. If Carter wasn't such a p***y about the Iran hostage situation, 8 people wouldn't have died and the hostages wouldn't have had to spend a year and a half in captivity. Worst President ever.
Great article. ...and Lynch should probably be ashamed of herself if she fails to mention this stuff. Of course, at this point, if she mentioned all this her interviewers would just about trample themselves in order to one-up each other to say how "modest" and "unselfish" she is. And the Hero-Making Machine marches on.
Obviously, you're aware that Bush DID start this war...out of whole cloth, in fact, whereas FDR started war with neither Japan nor Germany.
uh....? What? Japan attacked the US, not the other way around. Germany declared war on the US, not the other way around...how do you get that FDR started the war?
Conspiracy theory, he was a Democrat, obviously he could do no right. The usual conspiracies are: provoked Germany by supplying Britain, and provoked Japan by cutting off oil supplies, and knew beforehand about Pearl Harbor attack (popularized by the Ben Affleck movie). Here's my off the wall conspiracy: why were Reagan and Bush II at the helm when the most Americans were killed by foreign terrorists - military industrial complex trying to justify enormous spending increases? Just kidding, but all the same...
FDR knowingly provoked Japan with an ultimatum. And Lend-Lease was in all respects a belligerant act. In fact, FDR was doing pretty much everything he could short of formally declaring war against Germany. He ordered our forces to shoot any German ship they encountered on sight, and began to seize German merchant ships. Where are the defenses for the other two "great" Presidents? And where is the admission that the comment regarding Bush, was idiotic.
Knowingly? You should read his memoires...And the sanctions were not an act of war, however you want spin them. If they are so construed, we are currently at war with dozens of countries. Hardly. It was an agreement to trade supplies, to be repaid at more than market prices, in exchange for recieving naval bases around the globe. It was, as FDR admitted to Congress, a 'sweet deal' for the US. And it should also be noted that, even while L/L was being put into effect, the US continued to be the single largest foreign supplier to Germany as well, hardly consistent with a beligerent position. That FDR wanted us to get into the war is beyond doubt...that he was doing 'everything he could' isn't. As recent history has shown, he could have cited intelligence that Germany was about to attack the US, or was developing the bomb, or was smuggling gas agents into the US...he could have forced Congress to abide by the treaty of mutual protection with France and England, which we blissfully ignored... ...and he NEVER ordered our forces to shoot any German ship they encountered on sight...where the Devil did you get that idea!?!? Our forces were ordered to defend themselves if attacked...standard practice...and it never happened until Operation Drum Roll. Seriously, where did you get this stuff? Seizing German ships on Presidential command? What!?!?
Damn no edit...meant to sum up, regarding Nomar's post: There are two recognized ways to directly start a war, A) an act of war, or B) a declaration of war. The US initiated WWII with neither...whether or not you feel that some of the diplomatic positions/actions we took pre-war helped to incite Japan's act of war, or Germany's declaration of war, that doesn't alter the fact that they were not, in and of themselves, acts of or declarations of war. It should also be noted that both Japan and Germany ackowledged that they began the war with the US. As far as your opinion that certain of our diplomatic actions constituted implicit acts of war...those which actually happened, not these mythical orders to fire on sight of German ships, which would have been an act of war, it doesn't hold water similar diplomatic actions take place dozens of times each and ever year, with no resultant war.
No I don't see the difference. How is Carter's handling of the hostage crisis and what happened not direct cause and effect? Same for the other 2 examples.
1) Ok, outline the specific causality of Carter's 'handling' of the situation as events unfolded, and the sure result had he not done so. 2) The other TWO? You still maintain that FDR started WWII? I don't know what to say to that, other than it's wrong. Simply put...and I showed you how linking Kennedy to the war in Nam, while arguable, takes supposition. Linking Bush and Iraq takes no supposition, it is a linear relationship. That is the difference.
