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To: Road Walker who wrote (173962)	4/3/2003 9:06:32 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 186894

POW Reportedly Fought Captors With Gun 2 hours, 43 minutes ago By JOE COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer LANDSTUHL, Germany - Spirited but hungry, rescued prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch arrived in Germany for treatment of two broken legs and bullet wounds reportedly suffered in a fierce gun battle she waged against her Iraqi captors. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the 19-year-old Army supply clerk shot several Iraqi soldiers during the March 23 ambush that resulted in her capture. She kept firing even after she had several gunshot wounds, finally running out of ammunition, the newspaper said, citing unidentified U.S. officials. "She was fighting to the death," the Post quoted an official as saying. "She did not want to be taken alive." Pentagon (news - web sites) officials and family members contacted late Wednesday declined comment on the report. Lynch was rescued from an Iraqi hospital in a daring nighttime raid Tuesday by U.S. commandos acting on a CIA (news - web sites) tip. The former POW left Iraq (news - web sites) on a stretcher with an American flag folded across her chest, and arrived at a U.S. air base in Germany late Wednesday for treatment at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. From Germany, she spoke with her family at their home in Palestine, W.Va., in a 15-minute telephone call. "She's real spirited. She hasn't eaten in eight days and she's hungry," said her father, Greg Lynch. "She wants some food." Randy Coleman, a military spokesman in West Virginia, said Lynch had fractures in both legs, and her family said she also injured her arm. U.S. officials in Kuwait said earlier she had two broken legs, a broken arm and at least one gunshot wound. According to the Post account, she was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her. Landstuhl spokesman Capt. Norris Jones would not comment on Lynch's injuries other than to say she was in stable condition. "She's weak, she knows she's injured and they're doing the best that they can to get her so she can travel," said her brother Greg Lynch Jr. Her father said she will be transferred to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington as soon as possible. The 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. Lynch and as many as 12 other members of the 507th Maintenance Company were captured after making a wrong turn in Nasiriyah. She watched several soldiers in her unit die in the ambush, the Post reported. Not long after the fighting, five of Lynch's fellow soldiers showed up in Iraqi television footage being asked questions by their captors. The video also showed bodies, apparently of U.S. soldiers, leading the Pentagon to accuse Iraq of executing some POWs. Lynch joined the Army after graduating from high school in 2001. Her brother Greg enlisted the same day. Her 18-year-old sister Brandi will report for duty in August. "I still want to do it even more. It's the Lynch blood," Brandi Lynch said. To help Lynch reach her goal of becoming a kindergarten teacher, West Virginia and Marshall universities and Liberty College in Lynchburg, Va., offered her competing packages Wednesday. And West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise said the state would finance Lynch's education at a state public college or university of her choosing. "She wants to become a teacher, and we are going to see that she becomes one," he said after visiting the Lynch family at home.

To: Road Walker who wrote (173962)	4/3/2003 10:58:24 AM
From: hueyone	Respond to of 186894

But supporting the troops and generals doesn't mean, to me at least, supporting the politicians or supporting the policy. Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld are directly responsible for the cost/benefit of this war (not the soldiers); human, economic, and the future political implications. Imo, it is way too early to make a very clear judgment on what the cost/benefit is. If we succeed in planting the germs for a new democracy in the unstable Middle East, its benefit will be immeasurable; if we succeed in in stopping Saddam and discouraging other would be madmen from going forward to develop weapons of mass destruction that they might actually use on us; its benefit will also be immeasurable. I think a simple fact of life going forward is that the cost of maintaining freedom is simply a lot more expensive than it use to be. We may as well get used to it. Technology advances have increased the destructive power of small groups or individuals in a huge way relative to the power of large, organized armies from what it has been in the past. It's such a fine line, that I think a lot of our congressional leaders get caught in the same trap; if they don't support the policy they get painted with the wide brush of not supporting the troops. If I am not mistaken, the Congress, both Democrat and Republicans, authorized the President to use force to enforce prior U.N. resolutions, regardless of subsequent opinions by the Security Council, and prior to the time the U.S. actually pulled the trigger. Therefore, the Congress, both Democrat and Republicans, did much more than "support the troops during time of war"; they jointly decided prior to the commitment of forces to the war that a commitment of forces was warranted. That is why I have some small measure of hope and cautious optimism; the decision to take action was not made in a vacuum by just Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, it was authorized by our elected resentatives across the political spectrum. And by the way, don't forget two other very impressive Americans that had an important voice in this decision---Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice. Regards, Huey