Sgt Walters left behind to die by US Army gets zero news coverage

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2003/07/27/wjess27.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/07/27/ixworld.html/news/2003/07/27/wjess27.xml

As she watched Private Jessica Lynch's emotional homecoming on
television last week, Arlene Walters struggled to suppress her growing
anger. For millions of Americans, Pte Lynch's first faltering steps in her home town of Elizabeth, West Virginia, were a moment of high emotion, a happy ending to one of the darkest incidents of the Iraq war.

For Mrs Walters, however, the standing ovation and praise lavished on
the young woman soldier, who was captured by Iraqi forces and later
freed in a dramatic American raid, served only to highlight the
contrasting treatment of her dead son, who fought in the same unit.

It was, fellow soldiers have told her, Sgt Donald Walters who
performed many of the heroics attributed to Pte Lynch in the fanfare
of publicity designed to lift the nation's morale, and Sgt Walters who
was killed after mounting a lone stand against the Iraqis who ambushed
their convoy of maintenance vehicles near Nasiriyah.

Yet few, if any, of the Americans watching Pte Lynch's homecoming last
week have even heard her son's name. "The military tell us that
everyone who was in her unit was a hero," Mrs Walters told The
Telegraph. "In fact they have singled out Jessica Lynch as the hero,
and they are not giving the recognition to my son that he deserves.

more.................

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. "fellow soldiers told her of Sgt Donald Walters' heroics"

I'd like to hear more from these witnesses. I'm sure we all would.

[Hand]

5. Yes...

From what I've read, this sounds like the kind of selfless courage that deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor. Walters did what a non-com of the highest caliber is expected to do when the chips are down--sacrificed his life to protect his troops. The CO should have been there at his side, by the way, and given one final order: "Get the hell out of here, Sergeant, and lead the troops to safety! I've got your back. Now GO! That's a direct order!"

Didn't happen.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. Where has his action been documented?

where are the testimonies?

[DagmarK]

2. Darkest incidents?

"a happy ending to one of the darkest incidents of the Iraq war."

Uh, not in MY opinion. There are a top number of DARKEST incidents...... like the little boy who lost both his arms - as well as his whole family. Like that missile going into the Baghdad market during the day... Like the fact that about 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been murdered. Like the fact that the millions of people in Iraq are now being TERRORIZED on a daily basis by an occupier.....

Oh.......I think Pvt. Lynch's ordeal falls wayyyyyyyyyyy down on the list. Esp when she is alive BECAUSE of the iraqi's kindness............

[nostamj]

3. uh................ not really

she was given a signficant segment of Bu chanan & Press last night (at least I think it was B&P) but if not that, CNN and it was a long segment.

grim story too

[SoCalDem]

4. He was not a cute , blonde 20 yr old girl

and he was expendable.. The ones who have no kids in the fight do NOT care about the individual soldiers.. They are seen as a UNIT, like toy soldiers on a board, being manipulated by top brass.. They have no moms, dads, wives, sisters, kids, lives... They are just chess pieces on the board..

[ForrestGump]

7. Reality vs US TV news

On the day that Pvt Lynch went home I happened to catch the news while zapping through channels. I don't watch much TV but, when I do, I pay tribute to my essential maleness by flicking through channels.....also necessary because most of them seemed filled with 'reality TV' trash.

On the BBC I heard the news that she was homeward bound, couched in repetition of the fact that the Pentagon itself had admitted that the intial accounts of her nonexistent firefight and subsequent 'rescue' were heavily embroidered.

On one of the US networks I heard the same news, with no mention of the certified fact that her 'rescue' was essentially the same as we'd undergo while checking out someone from a hospital, or that she was there in the first place as a result of a traffic accident. They rattled on, in their hyper-annoying way, about how dramatic was her rescue and how she was a 'young hero.'

The American news report offended the Cheney out of me. Sure, perhaps we can generically dub all who don an American military uniform 'heroes,' and there's no question that they put their lives on the line when they enter a combat zone, but my visceral reaction to that piece-of-crap news report was that calling her a hero is an insult to real heroes.

What's a real hero? I don't know, but it sure as heck isn't someone who gets into a car crash and is heroically checked out of the hospital. Sure, if someone in my family were badly injured and came through in no small part because of their will to live, they'd be a hero to me, but personal heroes like that (or our parents, siblings, etc) are distinct from society-wide heroes. In my mind, anyway.

I've got nothing against Jessica Lynch - and it's not her fault that the propaganda machine latched on to her as a focus for their lies - but she did not commit heroic deeds. I'm sure that other soldiers over there at the time did commit acts of heroism, as did those on the other side and the unarmed civilians caught in the middle, but I really resent the label 'hero' being bandied about to the point at which it's meaningless.

And, of course, big surprise that the BBC puts her flag-waving return in the context of freely-admitted Pentagon lies (perhaps they'd prefer 'exaggerations') whereas the American network made absolutely no mention of that somewhat significant aspect of the proceedings. What's the bet that, though they may have initially reported the Pentagon report (I don't know), they'll forever continue to perpetrate the myth of Pvt Lynch's one-woman Rambo-like firefight, the wounds inflicted by Iraqi savages, and her daring rescue by an elite team.

Sick. Sick. Sick.

Still, glad you're home safely, Ms Lynch. I hope that your comrades-in-arms are coming back soon, too.

[SoCalDem]

8. delete.. it duped

DU is DUpe-ing again

[SoCalDem]

9. Please no flames, but in the truest sense, getting captured is NOT heroic

in ANY sense of the word.. It implies that you were either stupid enough to be in the wrong place or incapable of fighting the enemy off and surrendered..

Those things are not WRONG in ANY way, and self preservation is always preferable to death....but....... Getting captured is NOT heroic..

Once captured, if you plan and execute an escape, saving your fellow detainees, THAT would be heroic..

To sit and wait to be rescued is NOT heroic..

Surviving a vehicle crash is NOT heroic..

Running in front of a car to save a child IS heroic..
Risking YOUR life to save someone else IS heroic..


Our pathetic leadership is so immature and phony , that they will take any opportunity to propagandize..

and poor Jessica is just a pawn.. she is just going along with them because she has no other choice..

Did you guys know, that while she was a t walter reed, she had an armed guartd outside her door, and she was NOT free to mingle with the other patients??

She is still in captivity :(