Step Aside J-Lo & Ben, Elizabeth Smart now rules

[flyangel2 2]

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Edited to add: apparently, the Smart parents are responding now to charges of allowing too much press and coverage. Thank goodness I'm not the only one (except a whole lotta you posters) who agrees that this is out of hand.

As a parent of minor age children, I would think that I have a say in how much I allow the media to talk to my child. Also, didn't the parents get in front of the media themselves? I understand why they did it when their daughter was kidnapped, to keep her face out there, but why do it so much now? Didn’t they write a book themselves? Are they feeding the media?

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[billvon 3,036]

As an interesting aside, the British media (both the Guardian and BBC) have a very different take on the Jessica Lynch story.

In their versions, Jessica is captured by Iraqi soldiers after her company got lost in Badghdad. Her injuries were basically motor vehicle accident injuries - broken bones etc. She was taken to a hospital, where doctors gave her blood and treated her for her injuries. They then tried to return her to US forces, but US soldiers opened fire on the ambulance and they had to flee back to the hospital.

From Newsday:
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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, they said.

Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, was ambushed outside Nasiriyah after taking several wrong turns. Army investigators believe this happened in part because superiors never passed on word that the long 3rd Infantry Division column that the convoy was following had been rerouted. At times, the 507th was 12 hours behind the main column and frequently out of radio contact.

Lynch was riding in a Humvee when it plowed into a jackknifed U.S. truck. She suffered major injuries, including multiple fractures 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.

Tipped that Lynch was inside Saddam Hussein General Hospital in Nasiriyah, the CIA, fearing a trap, sent an agent into the facility with a hidden camera to confirm she was there, intelligence sources said.

The Special Operations unit's full-scale rescue of the private, while justified given the uncertainty confronting the U.S. forces as they entered the compound, ultimately was proven unnecessary. Iraqi combatants had left the hospital almost a day earlier, leaving Lynch in the hands of doctors and nurses who said they were eager to turn her over to Americans.

Neither the Pentagon nor the White House publicly dispelled the more romanticized initial version of her capture, helping to foster the myth surrounding Lynch and fuel accusations that the Bush administration staged-managed parts of Lynch's story.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/nyc-1lynch0616,0,1272981.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,956255,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/3028585.stm

[jraf 0]

I can understand and relate to what you say but.....

.....I do believe you need a visit your optician or stop drinking beer in the morning (a horrible sacrifice, I know)

Kow on Mother Earth did you come to the conclusion that either E. Smart or J. Lynch are attractive? They are a pair of the blandest women I have ever seen. They are as sexy as a 55 gallon steel drum. They have as much appeal as a corrugated box. They are hopless....just hopeless.

jraf

Me Jungleman! Me have large Babalui.
Muff #3275

[Muenkel 0]

Maybe I'm just too close to the situation. I happen to know a person who was abducted just walking home from school. That person's life was never the same and the abduction was for only two days. No amount of money or comfy home lessened the trauma the person endured.

And I am not trivializing what happens to the poorer children.

Elizabeth Smart has been sentenced to a life of pain. A pain you may never understand.

Chris

_________________________________________
Chris

[vonSanta 0]

She's gone through a tough time Muenkel, no one is disputing that.

What is being disputed is whether that qualifies her as an "American hero".

If going through tough times would make someone an American hero then there is a *lot* of them out there not recieving any praise, acknowledgment or credit.

Let's define heroism:

heroism
n : the qualities of a hero or heroine; exceptional or heroic courage when facing danger (especially in battle); "he showed great heroism in battle"; "he received a medal for valor" [syn: gallantry, valor, valour, valorousness, valiance, valiancy]

Did Lynch show heroic courage? No; she was in a car crash, got banged up badly and Iraqi docs, using what they had available, managed to save her life.

She was in combat. Again, over 200 000 troops were - it is not an automatic qualifier. One of her comrades actually fired his rifle - with reportedly good effect - and was ultimately killed as he ran out of ammo. Took on a much larger enemy force and didn't give up despite the odds. *That* is heroism, yet we've heard very little about that.

Lynch was a victim of circumstances. She could avoided them in the first place by not signing up. She then sat in a car. Car crashed. She got wounded and blacked out. Foreigners save her life. US special forces take her from an undefended hospital.

There are heroes in this story - Lynch just isn't one of them. She remained passive for the whole ordeal and while it'll have scarred her for life, that doesn't make her a hero in the conventional sense. Calling her that is pissing on the graves of all the unacknowledged people who intentionally and knowlingly overcame their fears to defend their own life and the lives of their comrades.

And now she's *cashing in* on the accident with her book. I felt sympathy for her, much like I do for most who go through traumatic events. Now that she is using her new found celebrity to make money she'll have to settle for them. Have little respect for those that make money on lies and piss on the graves of greater people.

Santa Von GrossenArsch
I only come in one flavour
ohwaitthatcanbemisunderst

[darkvapor 0]

I agree with everything you said. However, I think the basis of this thread was that she is getting unfair attention, regardless that it is undue attention.

The first argument that was raised in this thread was.. how come Spc. Shoshana Johnson didn't get a book deal? Was Lynch somehow more special? More heroic? Not really.. Lynch was probably blacked out 90% of the time after sustaining injuries from her vehicle crash. She couldn't fight, she probably couldn't even move. She had back, leg, and chest injuries.. If she managed to pull out an M-16.. sling two wounded comrades over her shoulder, and fight off a battalion of Iraqis, then yes.. she would have been a hero... but she didn't do anything. She just survived. If she died, tragic as it may be, she would have never received a bit more attention than any other soldier killed in combat.

Spc. Shoshana Johnson was pretty much identical to Lynch. Neither were front line soldiers, they were about the same rank (if not the same rank).. neither really deserve to be called heros... so why did Lynch get the special treatment? Because she was more 'presentable'... it's easier to package an alleged 'cute' (I think most people here will agree that Jessica Lynch is not "cute").. white middle america woman that overcame all odds, fought these savages, and lived.

I think the media went overboard on the story as soon as it hit the press wires. It was on every front page story, and the journalists were drooling at the opportunity to make the wildest claims and make the story as dramatic as possible. I don't think the US military wanted to play down what really happened after that. It was good press. Forget the rest of the company that was KILLED... we had a survivor... and that's entirely what the press focused on. Why would the gov't want to step in and say.. 'she wasn't a hero.. she wasn't wounded in hostile fire.. our special forces rescue team did not encounter any resistance'...

Anyways... I'm done ranting too..