By Jerry A. Boggs
14 November 2003
Even after Pvt.
Jessica Lynch’s initially reported acts of heroism were debunked, feminists
and much of the mainstream liberal media continued to push the Rambo myth
the Pentagon concocted for Lynch. (Her heroism, according to a Washington
Post front-page story, was that she had been “stabbed, and shot, and had
other injuries, but kept on fighting.”) They went on treating her as a hero
knowing full well she did nothing in Iraq except survive a grenade attack
that reportedly killed the rest of the troops in the Humvee transporting
them.
Why maintain this façade for
someone who, to Lynch’s credit, admitted she did nothing remotely related to
heroism and was just a survivor?
The reasons go
beyond the fact that Lynch is attractive and photogenic. That’s certainly
part of it. Were she overweight and plain, or black, her story might have
dropped off the media’s radar as fast as it popped up. The media sustained
Lynch’s fame primarily because she is a woman. To the feminist-influenced
military and mainstream media, Lynch, by merely surviving an attack, is
proof that women can cut it in combat as well as men can. (For the record, I
believe many women can cut it in combat. See “Move Qualified Women Into
Combat” in the left panel.)
Ask yourself: If
Jessica were Jesse, a male soldier who had done nothing but survive an enemy
assault while other troops around him fought and acted bravely, how long
would he get away with appearing in the media and posing as a war hero?
True, criticism of Lynch’s hero status grew fast, but a false male hero
would never have been given the light of the first day.
It seems that all a
female soldier must do to become a hero is be a living victim of war’s
violence. In contrast, a male soldier must commit an actual act of daring
heroism. Apparently to feminists and the mainstream media, a female
surviving an attack is equal to a male heroically waging an attack. (One
must wonder what this double standard does for troop morale.)
As for her alleged abuse by Iraqi
soldiers — which may or may not have included rape, a topic the media seemed
to have quickly lost interest in — Lynch said when interviewed November 13
by WJR Detroit radio’s Paul W. Smith, “If I were abused, I would remember
it.”
It may turn out
that Lynch’s rape by Iraqi troops is a fabrication just as were Lynch’s acts
of heroism. The rape story may have been given legs by both conservatives
and feminists who are protective toward women. To them, rape is often a
political tool. One of its uses is to shock us into wanting to give women
extra protection, and to keep female soldiers out of direct ground combat
and thus out of the enemy’s reach so they won’t be “defiled.” (Defiling male
soldiers is OK, apparently.)
Conservatives’ reason for talking
about Lynch being raped stems from outmoded chivalry, which mandates the
protection of women. Sexist feminists’ reason for talking about it is that
Lynch’s rape works in concert with her “heroism” to achieve a dual feminist
aim: while the “heroism” is to prove women are as capable as men in combat,
and hence should be promoted to high-ranking military positions, the rape is
to show that women should be kept out of combat. That’s called “Having it
both ways” — achieving equal reward without equal risk. (Usually, the
feminists who raise the issue of rape of female soldiers aren't given much
notice by the mainstream media, which may want to downplay rape to make the
idea of women as combat soldiers more palatable to the public.)
On women in combat,
conservative Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center For Military
Preparedness, said in a WJR interview of Lynch’s rape, “The risk to women
[in combat] is extra vulnerability.” As if male soldiers are not raped by
the enemy in addition to being tortured and killed. As if the torture and
killing of men is less horrific than the raping of women. Moreover, if
female soldiers do have extra vulnerability, it is mitigated by male
soldiers’ tendency to overprotect them. This is a tendency male troops in
the past were trained against, so as to desensitize them into not overly
protecting female soldiers. The training failed to stop the troops — even
some Iraqi troops — from overly protecting Jessica Lynch.
That was part of the power she had as a female
soldier.