Tim Blair

The hospital staff had made repeated attempts to release Pvt. Lynch previously, but had been shot at by trigger happy Yankee soldiers.

Whoa, there were cameras involved in her release? You mean they filmed it? Man, next thing you know he'll claim that the building they stormed was actually a hospital. Hey, did you know that the staff actually baked a cake for the rescuers? They spit it out on the doctors' faces and shot the frosting.

"The hospital staff had made repeated attempts to release Pvt. Lynch previously, but had been shot at by trigger happy Yankee soldiers."

Your joking, surely? That one has been debunked- they tried to murder her, and the ambulance driver has stated that they where not actually fired upon;

http://www.wilbursblog.blogspot.com/2003_06_15_wilbursblog_archive.html#95892178

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110003655

http://www.instapundit.com/archives/010205.php#010205

"The hospital staff also said that on the night of March 27, military officials prepared to kill Ms. Lynch by putting her in an ambulance and blowing it up with its occupants — blaming the atrocity on the Americans. The ambulance drivers balked at that idea. Eventually, the plan was changed so that a military officer would shoot Ms. Lynch and burn the ambulance. So Sabah Khazal, an ambulance driver, loaded her in the vehicle and drove off with a military officer assigned to execute her.

"I asked him not to shoot Jessica," Mr. Khazal said, "and he was afraid of God and didn't kill her." Instead, the executioner ran away and deserted the army, and Mr. Khazal said that he then thought about delivering Ms. Lynch to an American checkpoint. But there were firefights on the streets, so he returned to the hospital. (Ms. Lynch apparently never knew how close she had come to execution.)"

It was one attempt, not 'repeated attempts'. The fire wasn't directed at the ambulance, and it was all part of a plan to do her in.

Wilbur, (nudge-nudge, wink-wink)
I really didn't believe that the staff at Walter Reed had been shot at by Yankee soldiers (maybe Confederate or Souix warriors). I'll add the sarcasm tag in the future.

Her homecoming parade was definately staged. They may deny it, but it *was* staged!!

Anyone read US fetes its mythical heroine by Elaine Monaghan in the Herald Sun? Calling it absolutely bitter isn't even in the same ballpark.

I've seen the footage. It sucks. There's, like, twelve seconds of a camera going up some stairs, followed by a few minutes looking at feet. Surely anyone whose main concern was staging a heroic rescue rather than, say, rescuing somebody, would shoot less sucky footage than that.

And the image quality? Hell, I get better video on my cheap-arse Cybershot. If that was supposed to be TV camera the Secret Propaganda Division of the army got ripped off big-time.

I love all of the 'the US Army knew that there were no enemy troops there' stuff.

In war you may BELIEVE that, but you do not KNOW it, also in a country as full of guns and secret police as Iraq it seems prudent to prepare for resistance even if there are no troops there.

Imagine the cries of 'bungling' if the US had sent an unarmed medical team to extract Pte Lynch and they had been killed or captured.

In war it's always a good idea to be better armed, equipped and prepared than you think is neccessary.

What Wilbur said. Wilbur is da man.

Erm... but I do have a chuckle when I hear her, "I can't remember a thing" response to any question asked of her. How convenient.

Except for that bit where she had to convince the disbelieving Iraqis that she's a woman AND and American soldier. She remembers that bit.

"Wilbur, (nudge-nudge, wink-wink)
I really didn't believe that the staff at Walter Reed had been shot at by Yankee soldiers (maybe Confederate or Souix warriors). I'll add the sarcasm tag in the future."

(opens eyes, slaps open palm onto forehead, cries 'D'OH!' very loudly)

Oops! My bad.

I'm sure there where confederates involved though. There's still a lot of crime in the deep south, all these years after they where 'defeated' by the American Army..... I don't think the American army realised what a job it was taking on after Gettysburg... that Lincoln, he's so stooopid... ;-)

>There's still a lot of crime in the deep south, all these
> years after they where 'defeated' by the American
> Army..... I don't think the American army realised what a
>job it was taking on after Gettysburg... that Lincoln, he's
>so stooopid... ;-)

And the US is *still* quagmired in The South! Iraq is just like First Manassas.

This is such BS. The reason the Lynch story started was anti Bush piece. "The first causualities, a young girl... a young sweet innocent blond haired WHITE girl... who only joined the army so she could get MONEY to go to COLLEGE... so she could be a SCHOOL TEACHER... is missing. Perhaps dead or dying in the street... alone... in the rain, maybe taken prisoner and possibly being repeatedly RAPED... at this very moment. We don't know yet. We just don't know. However, we do know... it's all because of Bush's policies that this has happened. The first casuality of this war."

That's how it started in the news. So now that it has back fired on them, it becomes a theatrical performance started by Bush. Friggin typical.

I find Jessica Lynch sexually attractive.

Memo to Craig Mc:

While the internet is an international thang, there is a generally Aussie slant to this blogs' postings. So if you start making comments about Civil War battles your going to either get ignored or confuse a lot of readers. For instance, I reckon ther US went into Iraq when it did without the 4th ID being in place was because US Generals don't like being called a McCleland. However, I refrain from making that argument because most Aussies don't have much knowledge about the civil war and it would take too long to explain that concept to them.

Regards

Good point Razor, in Colin Powell's autobiography, he tells of how Norman Schwarzkopf lost it when Powell mentioned him and McClelland in the same sentence, when discussing troop requirements for GW1.

Now hold on there Razor. What you say is reasonable, but remember... this is planet Earth. I recall reading somewhere that while traveling trough eastern Europe they saw a US Civil War reenactment there and that they hold them every year. I think it was in Czech... Check... Romania. It's close enough. If a find the link I'll post it. The writer was describing how crazy the world is concerning the US Civil War. People from Asian, proper Asians, visit the US to take part in reenactments every year. One history professor was describing his best graduate student studying the US Civil War was from Korea. Just completely mind blowing stuff. I got to find that link.

"I'm sorry Chiang, but there just wasn't any 47th all Schez... Swez... Hunan Brigade. It's close enough. You and your friends will just have to go back."

"Don't you oppress me!" "That's what this war was all about, fighting oppression."

"Ok, line up next to the 43rd all Tamil Brigade over there on the left."

"We can't. Those are Union forces."

"I thought you were for fighting oppression? Ok, gotcha... Robert E... Ok, okay. Line up next to the 345th all Bantu... Yes, I realize that many of you have immigrated to Montana. That's not the point. The point is that Montana was not a state yet. So there can't be a 347th all Bantu Tribesmen from Montana! I'm not oppressing you. There was no... hold on. Who are you?"

"Ah, Grigor from Tablisi. Splended. Yes, we have been waiting for you all. Glad you made it in time. Ok everyone, listen up. This time we are using real bullets."

Razor,
I am an aussie - Hoich-p'tui - up the mighty Blues! We got the whole Ken Burns Civil War thang here - at least twice I think. I haven't check the blogs widely, but I think Ken's reporting was relatively balanced. Maybe he should run the BBC.

Holy frikken Christ! I was right.

Oh, how I wish I wasn't. (Poster shakes his head, gently places his hands over his face and begins to weep.)

The Left are pissed that they haven't been able to appropriate Lynch to their cause.

Note that she said that she did say "I'm an American soldier, too" when she was captured.
So, she wasn't unconscious when captured...the Newsweek story suddenly sounds much, much more credible.

Funny how the likes of the Beeb only listen to the Iraqi docs when it suits them; one of them who operated on her says he reckons Lynch was beaten up.

The Army is covering something up, but it ain't the rescue; it's the ambush and what happened after Lynch was captured.

"Private Lynch was not shot and stabbed, as US officials first claimed..." ??? That was "reported" all over the place, along with details like a jammed rifle, two pistols running out of ammo - and not a damn word attributed to anyone in Iraq except other reporters. All that was media doing what has now become its thing - lie, and if caught, blame it on the people you lied about. Remember "the taking of Basra" story? British said they had the airport, media headlined it Basra taken, Brits repeated just the airport, media spent two weeks calling Brits liars...