U.S. soldier hailed for bravery in Iraq says Pentagon spin doctors made it all up

"The American military has been accused of telling lies about two of its most famous soldiers.

Official versions of the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch and the death of former US football star Pat Tillman turned both into national heroes.

But the propaganda was dismissed as "utter fiction" at a Capitol Hill hearing to expose the false battlefield stories peddled by the Pentagon.

Jessica Lynch, now 23, said she was giving testimony "to set the record straight".

"I'm no hero, the people who served with me who died are the real heroes," she said. "The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype."

She said the stories of derring-do did not apply to her.

The former army private became a celebrity after being taken prisoner as the first wave of U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Military chiefs hailed her a gritty heroine who was only captured after putting up fierce resistance during a gunfight during which she was shot and stabbed.

She was eventually freed in a US raid on a hospital where she was being held captive, the Pentagon said.

But it later emerged that her gun was jammed with sand so she couldn't use it and she was only injured when her vehicle crashed.

There were no Iraqi troops at the Saddam Hussein General Hospital when the Americans carried out their "rescue" and medical staff had unsuccessfully tried to hand over the wounded private to US forces prior to the raid.
"
[Full story here]

 

Who Cares?

Who cares about some kid that is hailed as a hero when she should not have been there to begin with.[http://houseofpolitics.com/forum/images/smilies/mad.gif

 

Who Cares?

Who cares about some kid that is hailed as a hero when she should not have been there to begin with.

 

Why shouldn't she have been there, she was enlisted personnell???? Where is her place, in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant?

 

She was doing her job. It is odd the pentagon would do that though. Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking. However, without proper facts I can't say, who knows where the disinformation started? Maybe the soldiers that rescued her told the story, and the pentagon furthered it, w/o the knowledge it was false. I may be playing devil's advocate here, but I mean I hate to swing too far from the middle road on things without a paved path of information to follow.

 

It isn't odd at all. It's propaganda. They were just using a somewhat outdated technique - the usage of heroic figures to bolster public support. The thing that they didn't count on was the whole "I Support the Troops" movement which doesn't necessarily support the war. Big stories about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman got tons of airtime...but in the end it didn't "rally the people to the flag" the way the gov't intended it to.

 

I think it came from the political rather then military side of the Pentagon. They need heros to maintain public desire for war and bolster the image of the enemy as inhuman thugs. What could be better then a young blond female soldier hero who was heroically injured, repeatedly raped and held hostage?

 

No not odd that they did that directly, but rather odd they did it knowing damn well the truth was behind but a paper thin sheet. Usually falsifications of heroism is saved for the dead who can't disavow their statements.

 

No idiocy is beyond this government.

 

In this info-age maybe the pentagon decided to spin both stories. One spin vector was to create a hero during the early phase of the war (great for pr and morale) the other was to do CYA damage control after a well known football player was killed by friendly fire.

 

yes id agree with this assesment actually. It makes sense that they would spin both ends of the baton