by Don Unger, SUNY Cortland
Posted in on Thursday, Dec 23
Jessica Lynch was born in 1985 into a working-class family living in Palestine, West Virginia. With dreams of being a kindergarten teacher, Lynch enlisted in the U.S. Army in order to defray the cost of a college education.Both Jessica and her brother, Greg Jr., signed up when the recruiting officer came to the Appalachian region in the summer of 2001, months before the September 11 attacks and the escalation of the Bush administration’s War on Terrorism; she never dreamed she would be deployed to Iraq.
On 23 March 2003 Lynch was captured when her battalion, the 507th Maintenance Company of the U.S. Army, took a wrong turn and was ambushed by Iraqi forces. In an article dated 03 April, 2003 The Washington Post reported that, according to Pentagon officials, the Army supply clerk had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and numerous other injuries when Lynch was “fighting to the death.” According to the same Pentagon sources Lynch “did not want to be taken alive.” After watching several members of her battalion die at the hands of the brutal Iraqi forces, Lynch decided that surrender was not an option. The Post article claims she fought to the bitter end—in hand-to-hand combat when she ran out of ammunition. Lynch sustained stab wounds when her attackers closed in. The Pentagon version of events chronicles a modern-day captivity narrative—a white, Christian woman, carrying out God’s good work, captured by a savage-native population. Lynch fought to the bitter end to spread American democracy to the Iraqi people.
The captivity narrative is one of America’s oldest literary forms, dating back to 1682 and the publication of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Rowlandson’s memoir and the rhetoric contained in its pages predate American nationhood by nearly a century.
Rowlandson arrived in Salem, Massachusetts with her parents, John and Joan White, in 1639. The Whites were devout Puritans who came to the New World from England as part of the Great Migration. John became a prominent figure in the Puritan Church and moved his family to Lancaster, deep into the Anglo-Indian frontier. Relations between native tribes and the Puritan settlers had been amicable, until the Puritans continued pushing further and further into native territories. Tensions exploded following the trial and execution of three Christian-Indian leaders believed to be in league with the Wampanoag leader, Metacom. Metacom’s War began in 1675.
Mary Rowlandson and her two children were abducted outside Lancaster, Massachusetts during a Wampanoag raid on a Puritan compound on February 10, 1675. Rowlandson and her surviving child were held as a slave until May 2, 1676 when they were exchanged for a ransom of 20 pounds sterling at Redemption Rock in Mount Wachusett, New Hampshire.
Originally composed for an anthology detailing life in colonial New England, Mary’s account of her enslavement was published as a stand-alone book. The book became an immediate best seller in the colonies and England and went through many editions. The success of Rowlandson’s memoir sparked a new genre referred to as captivity narratives. In the Women’s History Guide, Jone Johnson Lewis describes captivity narratives as:
“Part of the culture's definition of what a proper woman should be and do. Women in these narratives are not treated as women should be – they often see the violent deaths of husbands, brothers and children. The women also are unable to fulfill ‘normal’ women's roles: unable to protect their own children, unable to dress neatly and cleanly or in the ‘proper’ garments, unable to restrict their sexual activity to marriage to the ‘appropriate’ kind of man. They are forced into roles unusual for women, including violence in their own defense or that of children, physical challenges such as long journeys by foot, or trickery of their captors (2).”
In the first year of captivity Rowlandson dealt with the death of her youngest child, who was unable to survive the demands placed upon them—demands stemming from the rigors of a nomadic lifestyle in the winter of northeastern America. Rowlandson characterizes this experience as a tell tale sign of the natives’ savagery. In her account of the attack that led to her capture Rowlandson turned such colorful phrases as, “Indians gaping before us with their GUNS, Spears, and Hatchets to devour us;” men with their “bowels split open (Ott 1).” She devoted much of the memoir to recounting the gory aspects of her captivity, constructing a narrative more akin to adventure fiction than a hymn to God’s grace.
The Pentagon version of Lynch’s capture offers us a similar narrative tone, beginning with a vivid description of Lynch’s capture, where she witnessed the deaths of many of her fellow officers. Lynch is said to have been starved, beaten and raped during her stay in the Nasiriyah Hospital, dubbed the “Saddam Hospital” by the American Media, and“ U.S. forces who rescued her also found 11 corpses—some believed to be Americans—in and around Saddam Hospital, and the military was trying to determine whether any of them were captured members of her unit (Fox, 03 April).” Alongside the description of “Saddam Hospital” littered with American corpses we are offered the gruesome details pertaining to Lynch’s injuries. Fox News referenced Lynch’s two broken legs, a broken arm and at least one gunshot wound twice in its one-page report titled “Report: Lynch Was Shot, Stabbed in Fierce Struggle With Iraqi Captors,” despite the fact that a military spokesman reported less serious injuries in the same article.
The parallels between Lynch’s tale and the traditional captivity narrative don’t end there. Johnson Lewis, addressing the political purpose that belies the captivity narrative, writes:
“The captivity stories also perpetuate stereotypes of Indians and settlers, and were part of the on-going conflict between these groups as the settlers moved westward. In a society in which men are expected to be the protectors of women, the kidnapping of women is viewed as an attack on and affront of the males in the society, as well. The stories serve thus as a call for retaliation as well as for caution in relating to these ‘dangerous’ natives. Sometimes the narratives also challenge some of the racial stereotypes. By depicting the captors as individuals, often as people who also face troubles and challenges, the captors are also made more human. In either case, these Indian captive narratives serve a directly political purpose, and can be seen as a kind of political propaganda. (3)”
Rowlandson characterizes her experiences with the Wampanoag as God’s work, regardless of the differences in her treatment. When she was treated harshly the treatment was characterized as the savagery of a heathen population and when she was treated with kindness, when one of her captors gave her a copy of the Bible pilfered during a recent skirmish with American colonialists, or when she was reunited with her child who was being held captive by another tribe, for example, Rowlandson characterized these interactions as manifestations of God’s work. Rowlandson was incapable of viewing the natives as individuals.
Lynch’s story reads much the same way. The Pentagon version of events states that a band of Navy SEALs stormed the hospital in Nasiriyah armed for battle, and, coincidentally, with night-vision cameras, to liberate Lynch from her captors. While the cameras beamed a live-feed of the proceedings to U.S. Central Command in Qatar, the SEALs whisked Lynch out of the hospital on a stretcher and ushered her into a personnel transporter, all while evading enemy fire and even engaging in battle. But we need not rely on the reports of American print journalism, since Lynch’s rescue was captured to film by her rescuers.
In the weeks that followed, the Pentagon’s construction of events crumbled beneath the weight of reality, though Lynch’s captivity narrative remains very much intact. The BBC conducted an independent investigation into the Lynch affair and published its findings in late May 2003. Their story contradicts the official, U.S. military version of events. Interviews with the staff at Nasiriyah Hospital and the American doctor who treated Lynch after she was rushed to an American military base in Germany on 03 April revealed that Lynch was not raped, beaten, shot, stabbed or starved by her so-called captors, as the Pentagon contends, but given exceptional medical treatment. The Iraqi hospital staff contends that they put their own safety on the line by defending Lynch from attack by the Iraqi military during her stay at the hospital. The BBC report also revealed that the hospital staff attempted to deliver Lynch to American forces two days prior to her rescue when Iraqi forces fled Nasiriyah and the hospital sent Lynch in an ambulance to the nearby American base camp. The ambulance was met with gunfire despite the fact that hospital officials contacted American forces to let them know one of their injured soldiers would be delivered to their doorstep.
One of the nurses even brought her small children into the hospital to visit with Lynch in the hopes that the American would feel more comfortable in her alien surroundings. She claims that the American referred to her as her Iraqi doll and that she wanted to bring her home to America when she got out of the Iraqi Hospital. This account is a far cry from the Pentagon version of events, but the differences don’t end there. The Iraqi hospital workers claim that the NAVY SEALs stormed the hospital with their guns blazing, despite the fact that Iraqi military forces pulled out of the hospital and Nasiriyah itself days before the U.S.’s valiant rescue. The SEALs corralled most of the hospital workers into the X-Ray room and arrested the nurse in Lynch’s room—it is unclear whether the nurse was released or if she remains in a U.S. military prison awaiting trial for war crimes. At the time of the BBC article, some six weeks after the debacle, the nurse was still imprisoned.
It was later revealed that the American forces were fully aware that the hospital and the city of Nasiriyah itself were clear of Iraqi military forces. Fox News alludes to this tip in an article date 03 April 2003 (“Lynch was rescued from an Iraqi hospital in a daring nighttime raid Tuesday by U.S. commandos acting on a CIA tip.” (5)). The tip they were referring to were reports delivered to the U.S. military from video cameras attached to the clothing of Iraqi informants who went into the hospitals days before Lynch’s rescue. Alongside video information regarding Lynch’s condition and location the video made U.S. officials aware that the Iraqi military had indeed abandoned the hospital days before their staged rescue of Lynch.
In addition to the video footage, CIA informants gave detailed stories about Lynch’s treatment at the hospital. One informant claimed he witnessed an Iraqi officer slapping Lynch, though this story cannot be corroborated since the witness was “whisked to the United States, where he was immediately granted political asylum and has refused all interview requests (Scheer, “Saving Private Lynch Take 2,” 8).” Coincidentally, the informant was given a job at a lobbying firm run by former Republican Rep. Bob Livingstone that represents the defense industry, as well as a $500,000 book deal by HarperCollins—one of the publishing imprints of Rupert Murdoch.
The BBC’s account of Lynch’s treatment only reinforces the strength of the captivity narrative constructed by the Pentagon and right wing new sources such as Fox News. As previously stated, Rowlandson’s own account included incidents of kindness, but these incidents couldn’t eclipse the rhetoric of Puritanical demagoguery just as the incidents of kindness toward Jessica Lynch never break through the rhetoric behind the Bush administration’s War on Terror and the War in Iraq. In the conclusion to President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address he states, “America is a strong nation and honorable in the use of our strength. We exercise power without conquest, and we sacrifice for the liberty of strangers. Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation (Myles 2).” The Bush administration determines the point of debate—what is it to going to take to bring democracy to Iraq? The liberal media reporting on the actions of the U.S. military in Iraq, even when reports made by the Pentagon on specific actions are proven to be false, doesn’t reframe the debate or address the purpose behind the rhetoric, just as the BBC report on Lynch never addresses Lynch’s captivity narrative as such.
Johnson Lewis elucidates the rhetorical nature of the captivity narratives later in her article:
“The captivity narratives also usually refer to the religious contrast between the Christian captive and the pagan Indians. Mary Rowlandson's captivity story, for instance, was published in 1682 with a subtitle that included her name as ‘Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, a Minister's Wife in New England.’ That edition also included ‘A Sermon on the Possibility of God's Forsaking a People that have been near and dear to him, Preached by Mr. Joseph Rowlandson, Husband to the said Mrs. Rowlandson, It being his Last Sermon.’ The captivity narratives served to define piety and women's proper devotion to their religion, and to give a religious message about the value of faith in times of adversity. (After all, if these women could maintain their faith in such extreme circumstances, shouldn't the reader maintain her or his faith in less challenging times (4)?”
Jessica Lynch’s story is simply a captivity narrative where the Christian Church and the struggle to maintain Christian values are replaced by the Bush administration and its attempt to spread a particular brand of democracy to the heathens of the Middle East; the Iraqi people have replaced the pagan Indians.
Although Lynch has publicly condemned the way the Pentagon has portrayed her captivity and, more emphatically, the way in which she was rescued, it changes little about the effectiveness of her story as a captivity narrative for the Godly American public to latch onto, after all, Mary Rowlandson was bought out of captivity. Lynch’s story feeds into America’s fear of terrorism and the desire to quash the possibility of being victimized by terrorism. The Bush administration has set about colonizing the Middle East in order to prevent future attacks, masking this new era of colonialism under the banner of democracy. Rowlandson’s story won the hearts and minds of British and American readers for similar reasons. Colonizing the wilds of America meant making the New World safe for Christians and Christian ideals.
One need only surf the web to get an idea how Lynch’s captivity narrative has been embraced by America. Lynch has been idealized as a hero who gave everything but her life in an attempt to bring democracy to Iraq. One website proffers a video documenting Lynch’s capture and rescue as well as the effect her captivity narrative has had on her West Virginia community. At $24.95 for the VHS copy and $29.95 for DVD, the consumer is provided with the story of:
“Private Jessica Lynch, known as ‘Jessie’ to her friends back home, is an outgoing, friendly member of Palestine West Virginia. As a 19-year-old soldier, her story moved the world overnight when she was captured in the IRAQ war.
Faith and A Community is new video professionally produced to tell the untold story of not just one individual but a whole community that pulled together during a time of war. It’s a testimony to those who never lost hope. This dynamic video tells the story of Jessica’s rescue and those who believed for a miracle.
Jessie was the first prisoner of war to be rescued behind enemy lines since World War II. This video shows the power of unity, prayer and unwavering hope and will move the nation’s heart as a testimony of hope and love.”
And, if the video isn’t enough to whet your appetite, you can buy the CD,
“Accolade, by Miriah Duckworth, ($2.00 of every purchase goes to Jessica Lynch Foundation) Accolade is a new 5 song CD featuring Jessi's song. Miriah Duckworth, a personal friend of Jessica Lynch, added the song written by her mother to her new patriotic CD. Other songs included on CD are God Bless the USA, When You Believe, America the Beautiful and Amazing Grace.
The CD is $10 plus shipping and can be ordered by calling Cindy Duckworth at 304-275-4357.”
Yet another site bearing Jessica’s name contains songs, poetry and message forums with over 1500 registered members, where fans of Lynch’s captivity narrative can load up on further propaganda. Unfortunately for Lynch and author Rick Bragg, the authorized biography I am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, which details Jessica’s life from day one, only sold moderately well, dropping off the NY Times Best-sellers list after its fourth week in release and proving that the Pentagon constructed captivity narrative, regurgitated ad nauseum by Fox News, wins out when measured against any attempt to present the American public with fair and balanced reporting. It is the concept of Jessica Lynch as a captive that appeals to the American public and not Jessica Lynch, herself. She is a hero because she has provided Operation Iraqi Freedom with a victim whose plight continues to hold America’s hearts and minds captive.
Sources:
Blow, Richard. “An Unlikely Hero?” TomPaine.common sense (08 April 2003). http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7569
Cosby, Rita. “Sources Say Jessica Lynch Has Amnesia.” FOXNews.com (05 May 2003). http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,85936,00.html
Johnson Lewis, Jone “ Women Captives and Indian Captivity Narratives.” Women’s History Guide (2004). http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa020920a.htm?terms=indian%2Bcaptivity
Lando, Barry. “Saving Pvt. Lynch: The made-for-TV movie.” Salon.com News (16 May 2003). http://www.salon.com/news/features/2003/05/16/pvt_lynch/print.html
Myles, Anna G. "Slaves in Algiers, Captives in Iraq." Common-Place, vol. 5, no. 1 (2004). http://www.common-place.org
Ott, Bill. “The Sovereignty and Goodness of God & A Son of the Forest and Other Writings.” StoryLines New England Discussion Guide, no. 9 (2004). http://storylines.ala.org
O’Reilly, Bill. “Did the Pentagon Fake the Jessica Lynch Story?” FOXNews.com (30 May 2003). http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,88186,00.html
“Report: Lynch Was Shot, Stabbed in Fierce Struggle With Iraqi Captors.” FOXNews.com (03 April 2003).http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,82923,00.html
Scheer, Robert. “The Education of Jessica Lynch.” AlterNet.org (19 November 2003).http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/17229
Scheer, Robert. “Saving Private Lynch: Take 2.” The Nation Online (20 May 2003).http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20030602&s=scheer20030520
DESIGNER: Greg Montano, New Media Design, SUNY Cortland, USA