http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=426794

It seems amazing to me. It can’t be that Jessica Lynch is unaware that the poor saps waiting to welcome her home as some kind of hero have been fed a lie. Surely she must know. So either the Pentagon has got to her and told her to keep her mouth shut and go along with the lie or she is a long way from a ‘hero’, whatever that is, and is in fact a liar and attention grabber. It makes me genuinely sick to see the people of Palestine, WV, people forgotten by the likes of Bush cheering and waving the fake actions of someone who they believe so bravely killed several other poor saps who were fighting for Saddam Hussein (who equally didn’t care for his people either) in the name of America which translates as Bush and his rich friends who do so well from such brutality. Look up ‘suckers’ in the dictionary and you will find the definition ‘those who believe in a glorious war and in heroism e.g. the people of Palestine, WV.’ Bush doesn’t care about Jessica Lynch except as a tool of manipulation of the population. Bush doesn’t care about the people of Palestine, WV any more than he cares about the people of the other Palestine except as a tool of politics and re-election.
Someone needs to challenge Jessica Lynch to come clean. Take the CBS money and tell the truth to the nation. Now THAT I would buy cable to see. CBS must be pretty damn sure that she’ll tow the line and come out with the nice, clean, mold fitting, sanctioned version to want her so bad. It would be one of TVs great moments if she set the record straight live on TV but I guess anyone who publicly suggested it would get Jessica’d and their body would be found in the morning.
Actually, of course, there's a third option which is the most likely and that is that Jessica Lynch has been told to keep her mouth shut. She is a member of the armed forces and as such is living up to the motto 'be all you're told to be'. And so the villain of the piece becomes (quelle surprise) the U.S. government. They are taking advantage of a wounded soldier for their own propaganda ends. 'Shut up' they tell her and like the good pawn that she is she shuts up.
This leads me to imagine all sorts of situations in which Ms. Lynch must find herself either now or in the upcoming weeks. Home she comes to the flag waving of the hysterical mob convinced that she has gone right to the top of their estimation tree by behaving like their favorite ultra-violent action movie star. Flags are waved, she is deified and Jello is consumed. Then privately her daddy ask her what it was like to be so badly treated or tells her how proud he is that she carried on shootin' towelheads until her gun ran out or how exciting it must have been to be so bravely rescued by Arnie and Sly and Will and Chuck and the rest and what does she say? Yes, daddy, all that is true in line with the USA Today truth you've been enjoying. Is that the daughter he raised? One who lies to her daddy? There'll be hell to pay if he ever finds out the truth. Or does she tell him? Actually, pops, I was injured when the car crashed, my gun jammed, I was treated really rather well by the Iraqi boogeyman and the hospital treatment was pretty whizzy compared with what you could expect on Medicare back here in the states. What of her friends when they ask her one at a time how it was? Will she smile, pick up a copy of USA Today and tell them to read all about it or will she come clean in private and one at a time? I can see a wave of sullen anger sweeping through the town of Palestine as they all come to hear the truth. What a radicalizing process that could be. Bush had better watch out for Palestine. They'll be after him and they'll be pissed.
Private Jessica Lynch is in a world of shit whichever way you cut it. The Pentagon has her in an arm lock and it ain't going to let her go. The irony is that, despite the circumstances, despite what she represented, despite the desperate need of their fellow countrymen and despite the appalling lack of facilities and supplies it seems that her Iraqi captors treated Ms. Lynch a whole hell of a lot better than her rescuers now have. They treated her as a human being. The Bush war machine has treated her as a propaganda tool and has been happy to demand of her that she live a lie forever.
So what can she do? Three choices present themselves, none too appetizing. She could do as they say and bask in glory but it seems likely that the truth will out. She could tell friends and family one at a time and create a town of anger. That seems impractical as someone would eventually take an offer of several hundreds of thousands of dollars for an exposé from some paper somewhere. Or she could take CBS' offer and tell the world the truth live on TV and go rot in some military stockade somewhere for exposing Dubya's lies. This last raises an interesting question. What would the public reaction be if she were carted off to jail for blowing the whistle? Would the public who are currently bestowing her fifteen minutes upon her rise up and refuse to allow it or would they figure she was no longer anyone special and thus not care one way or the other whether she lived or died? Or would a new series of American Idol have begun by then and the disappearance of wassname who lay in a hospital bed not cause a stir at all?
Anyway, the next few months promise to be exciting ones in the soap opera that is Jessica Lynch. Except they don't. America has never been one to allow the truth to get in the way of a good story (witness babies thrown from incubators, students kissing tarmac etc etc). The public has its heroine and if they come to realise that the story is a crock then it will see that it must be reality that has the problem 'cos it sure as hell ain't 'merica.
One last footnote. Guns jam too often. They always have. You'd think they'd make them so they didn't. It seems to me kind of important that one should be able to rely upon ones mayhem spreading abilities and yet they seem no more reliable than Windows. What gives?