As a former jarhead I must admit I am not, nor have I ever been in the throes of a jessicagasm. She's a relatively pretty white girl in a non combat unit that got lost in the desert and captured. It happens. It shouldnt, but it does.
She isn't any more a hero than any of the other fighting men & women stationed anywhere else across this wonderful globe. Yes, people are shooting at them in Iraq. Yes it is dangerous. But it is their job, and they are doing it, for the most part with honor. But heroism is a different standard altogether. It is ABOVE & BEYOND the call of duty.
I personally feel that the young urban male, struggling to keep an honest 9-5 job, making a little better than minimum wage while walking through the mean streets of big city USA, going past his high school bros peddling crack to get to a bus because he cant afford a car. All the while not giving in to the easy cash options readily available to him. Or an 18 year old girl faced with the same choices and 2 kids to take care of. To me, those are heroic actions.
Surviving isn't, not to me.
There are other women who have been taken prisoner, suffered the same as Jessica has or worse, yet they get no publicity. No one knows their names. I don't blame Jessica for the inflated hype surrounding her at all. Take the money and run little girl is what I say. But I lost any shred of respect for her the day I saw the Iraqi (lawyer) who risked his life twice, walking miles and miles to tell the Marines the info they needed to rescue her, when he came to the town she was in to receive some small award of appreciation, and Jessica Lynch did not even bother to show up. He was a true gentleman, and conducted himself with quiet humble dignity. HE is the hero of this story. Not the backwoods little girl whose ingratitude went widely unnoticed.
spaz
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