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?
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