Wednesday, May 7, 2003 |
19:09 - The rest of the story
http://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&
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Via The Command Post. I was sort of expecting something like this to show up by now; after all the inevitable headlines (Newsweek and Time must have been in a race to the presses to be the one who got to use "Saving Private Lynch"), and the stories of heroism that consisted mostly of journalistic expansions on what the troops were told by Nasiriyah lawyer Mohammed al-Rehaief, it seemed like the thing to do was to wait and see what details surfaced once everybody got to tell their side of the story.
Three days before the U.S. raid, Lynch had regained enough strength that the team was ready to proceed with orthopaedic surgery on her left leg. The procedure involved cutting through muscle to install a platinum plate to both ends of the compound fracture. "We only had three platinum plates left in our supply and at least 100 Iraqis were in need," Raazk said. "But we gave one to Jessica."
A second surgery, and a second platinum plate, was scheduled for Lynch's fractured arm. But U.S. forces removed her before it took place, Raazk said.
Three days after the raid, the doctors had a visit from one of their U.S. military counterparts. He came, they say, to thank them for the superb surgery.
"He was an older doctor with gray hair and he wore a military uniform," Raazk said.
"I told him he was very welcome, that it was our pleasure. And then I told him: `You do realize you could have just knocked on the door and we would have wheeled Jessica down to you, don't you?'
"He was shocked when I told him the real story. That's when I realized this rescue probably didn't happen for propaganda reasons. I think this American army is just such a huge machine, the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing."
I'll buy that. I would also submit that al-Rehaief's impression of what was going on in the hospital may not exactly have been top-drawer intelligence, either. Based on what we're told he said to the American troops, I'd still say it made sense for the rescue unit to bash in the way they did. After all, they thought they were heading into an Uday charnel-chamber. The fact that, if this story is true, it actually turned out to be that we "rescued" Lynch from a place that was more professional and well-starched than my local Kaiser Permanente would owe more to good old-fashioned crossed wires and playing-it-safe than to any kind of propagandistic malice. That's why they call it the "fog of war".
What troubles the staff in Nasiriya most are reports that Lynch was abused while in their case. All vehemently deny it.
Told of the allegation through an interpreter, nurse Shinah wells up with tears. Gathering herself, she responds quietly: "This is a lie. But why ask me? Why don't you ask Jessica what kind of treatment she received?"
Good question; I've wondered that myself. How come we still haven't heard her side? That's something that's been bugging me for a while. I don't know if anybody's been on as many magazine covers as she has without being interviewed.
They're saying that the rescue was nothing like the Hollywood script that it's been made out to be. But I'd say that on the contrary, it actually sounds like a much more interesting and thought-provoking movie than it otherwise would have been. Ironic and self-denigrating and darkly comic. Just like most modern war movies usually are.
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