Every war has its heroes, and we will never know all their names or acts of courage. No doubt many American soldiers performed heroically in the war against Iraq, but their bravery will go unheralded because their stories were not sensational enough to satisfy the multiple and insatiable needs of the modern media conglomerates.
Ernie Pyle, always "embedded" with the troops, would have found them and told their stories. So I have to wonder what he would have made of the saga of Jessica Lynch, a 20-year-old Army private from Palestine, W.Va., and the most famous soldier of the Iraq war.
Jessica Lynch served bravely and honorably in Iraq, but she is no hero. She is a casualty of war and a survivor. That's the way she should be remembered. However, having created this mythical hero, the media seem determined, regardless of the facts, to exploit the battlefield ordeal of this young woman who enlisted in the Army as a means of paying for a college education and now finds herself at the center of an unseemly media competition promising her fame and fortune.
The world first heard of Pvt. Lynch in an April 3 story in the Washington Post under the headline: "She Was Fighting to the Death; Details Emerging of W. Va. Soldier's Capture and Rescue." The story, widely repeated in other newspapers and on television, helped reinforce public support for the war at home and boost military morale on the battlefield. It quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying Lynch, whose convoy was ambushed after taking a wrong turn, emptied her M-16 into Iraqi soldiers in fierce combat and killed several of the enemy. It said she was stabbed and shot multiple times before being captured by the Iraqis.
"She was fighting to the death," one U.S. official was quoted as saying. "She did not want to be taken alive." The story also said she was mistreated by her captors before a daring Special Forces raid rescued her from a Nasiriyah hospital. Hollywood found the story of "Saving Private Lynch" irresistible, as did television, newspapers and magazines.
The story made Lynch an instant media phenomenon. As it turns out, however, the real story was not exactly that of, as the Post put it, "the maintenance clerk turned woman-warrior from the hollows of West Virginia who just wouldn't quit." After questions arose about the accuracy of its exclusive story, the Post did a lengthy investigation that tells a far more complex and different story, with many questions still unanswered.
Contrary to initial reports, the Post reported last week, "Lynch tried to fire her weapon but it jammed, according to military officials familiar with the Army investigation. She did not kill any Iraqis. She was neither shot nor stabbed."
So what did happen?
"Lynch was riding in a Humvee when it plowed into a jackknifed U.S. truck. She suffered major injuries, including multiple factures and compression to her spine, that knocked her unconscious, military sources said. The collision killed or gravely injured the Humvee's four other passengers. Two U.S. officials with knowledge of the Army investigation said Lynch was mistreated by her captors. They would not elaborate."
None of this new information seems to have diminished the media's appetite for the Jessica Lynch story. She is still the warrior-celebrity, and last week the New York Times reported on just how low some media companies will stoop to capture Lynch's exclusive story.
A senior CBS News executive wrote a letter to the Lynch family dangling a multimedia deal for the exclusive right to interview Pvt. Lynch: a two-hour television documentary, a made-for-television movie, an MTV special, a book deal, the opportunity to host an MTV2 special and a concert in her hometown. CBS News, of course, is part of Viacom, a far-flung enterprise with the ability to deliver on all those promises. The CBS News executive explained that she was just trying to consolidate various projects to spare the Lynch family from a "media barrage." How thoughtful.
It's not clear whether Jessica Lynch has much of a story to tell. She is recuperating from her injuries under armed guard at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington. She even does her physical therapy alone. Her family says Lynch has no memory of what happened. The Army is not saying much, either.
Maybe Jessica Lynch will eventually turn down the television, movie and book deals as a gesture of respect for her comrades who died in the ambush. There were acts of bravery that day, and the Post's latest story described one: "One soldier, whose name could not be learned, bolted from his vehicle to try to rescue other soldiers from a disabled vehicle. He took cover behind a berm, not realizing at first that Iraqi soldiers were on the other side of the mortar pit. When he did, he killed a half-dozen of them with his weapons, a defense official said. Soon, though, he was surrounded by a couple of dozen armed Iraqis and is believed to have been killed on the spot."
I hope the Army is able to identify this hero and honor his selfless act of courage. After all, he won't be getting any book or movie offers.
