War & Peace: November 2003 Archives

This sure doesn't sound good, no, not at all.

WASHINGTON - Sunday, NBC will air its made-for-TV movie celebrating Pfc. Jessica Lynch, whose capture and dramatic rescue is the feel-good story of America's war with Iraq.

But some African-Americans don't feel so good about Lynch's story. Instead, they ask: What about Shoshana Johnson?

Johnson, an Army specialist, belonged to the same 507th Maintenance Company as Lynch. Unlike Lynch, Johnson fought to stave off their Iraqi captors. Like Lynch, she sustained serious injuries.

But only Lynch got the headlines, the TV movie, the prime-time television interviews and a biography penned by a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. Lynch, in short, got the full American celebrity treatment, while Johnson largely got ignored. Many African-Americans think that's simply because she didn't have the right "face.''

African-American suspicions of a racial double standard were reinforced last month when it was revealed that Johnson, who was shot in both ankles, will get only 30 percent of her monthly pay in disability benefits. Lynch, who had a head injury and broken bones in her right arm, right leg, thighs and ankle, will get 80 percent disability pay. Lynch's new book, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story,'' says she also was raped by her Iraqi captors.

"Ex-POWs' treatment seems unfair to many", William Douglas, SJ Mercury News, November 8, 2003, www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/7213959.htm

I have been sick to death of the Jessica Lynch rescue story... the maudlin, sacharine, manipulative movie that's coming out this Sunday (yes, I haven't seen the movie, but I HAVE seen the previews. All I can say is, "ECH!")... the distorted coverage... the lies of the Pentagon... etc, etc.

Now that Ms. Lynch has started speaking for herself, I have to say that I have a lot of respect for her.

Here are some quotes from a recent interview:

"It does [bother me] that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff... It's wrong."

"I don't know why they filmed it, or why they say the things they [say], you know. ... All I know was that I was in that hospital hurting. ... I needed help. I wanted out of there. It didn't matter to me if they would have come in shirts and blank guns; it wouldn't have mattered to me. I wanted out of there."

"It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about... Only I would have been able to know that, because the other four people on my vehicle aren't here to tell that story. So I would have been the only one able to say ... I went down shooting. But I didn't."

As usual, the government is blaming other people for the inaccurate coverage and bullshit and saying they had nothing to do with it. The person who actually got hurt (she still has health problems and is on crutches) actually has the balls (ok, ovaries!) to take responsibility. She doesn't call herself a hero. But in the era of Dubya II, it seems like just being honest is heroic, especially when I'm sure there was much pressure on her to spin things the way the chickenhawks wanted. (I hope they don't cut her health coverage.)

--> CNN,www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/07/lynch.interview/index.html