Koyaanisqatsi

Laci, are you my mom?

Seriously, though (and not to just jump on the bash laci fest), you really shouldn't ever get your information from made for TV movies. I know, I've written some. They are, by and large, soap operas with about ten percent reliance on any actual facts. As you (I think) mentioned, who wants to see a movie about a car crash?

Not that any of this is Lynch's fault, of course. She's being offered a lot of money for the "rights" to her story. What happens after that is anybody's guess, since once she signs on the dotted line, she is contractually incapable of telling any other story than the one the purchasers of those rights say is her story.

She'll be allowed to comment something benign like, "Well, they exaggerated it a bit," but her contract will no doubt have a non-disclosure clause.

And you should also keep in mind the chronology of how this "rescue" went:

1. A humvee got lost and crashed, killing almost everyone but Lynch.
2. She was taken to a hospital by Iraqis, where she was treated and left in the care of the doctors.
3. The Iraqis informed the US of her location and condition.
4. We went in and retrieved her.

Those are the basic facts that everyone (both liberal and conservatives) acknowledge. What everyone here has been reacting to, of course, is what was then hyped about such a routine and rather mundade event, even in times of war.

The entire event was made to look like a daring, dangerous mission by an elite and brave group of soldiers against an evil empire, when in fact it was just an overly dramatic hospital visit.

There were no Iraqi soldiers in a fortified hospital bunker of any kind on constant and ready alert to any advancing US soldiers who might fall for their evil trap and there was no need for it to be done at night.

Now, maybe our intelligence gathering is incredibly bad and the officer in charge of retrieving Lynch was given horribly false information or maybe that's just how our army does things, but in light of the facts now emerging, what should have been simply a retrieval of a wounded soldier officially "handed over" to us by the Iraqis got turned into a secret spy mission of daring do, giving the impression that dire consequences could happen at any moment to our brave soldiers in the field.

While that's true in general in a war, remember that we started this war. We were the aggressors with a vastly supperior force.

Imagine, if you will, that Russia invaded your home town and that our army were about as effective as your local police force, most of whom are in the front lines desperately trying to defend against the invading army. A lost truck of Russian soldiers crashes down the street from you and your remaining police take the survivor to a hospital.

These soldiers hadn't done anything; they hadn't shot up your town or were on a special mission to assasinate anyone or the like; they just had a car accident.

Your police chief informs the Russians about the incident and tells them where they can retrieve their soldier and then goes on about his business.

Instead of just sending a few Sakorsky helicopters to hover over the area for air support in case of an ambush or sending a few tanks to the hospital doors just to make sure nothing is "fishy" about the hand over of their wounded soldier, they instead decide to go in at night, videotape the event through night vision technology that makes it all surreal and far more dangerous and then release an edited version of that tape, calling it a "rescue" in their media and on their news channels. Wild exaggeration occurs, such as a firefight where the soldier supposedly killed off as many of the "enemy" as she could before being "captured" by your police chief and taken to a secret location that had to be breached by a special group of soldiers, at night, in a daring rescue against impossible odds.

All of which makes it seem (to the Russian audience and the world audience) as if their invasion of America was necessary, because of how dangerous and cunning all Americans are. None of them can be trusted, not even their doctors and nurses. Eventhough the Russian army is so vastly supperior to your town's local police force, a covert secret mission at night is the only way to get their soldier back safely. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of such horrible people as the Americans? Look at the terror they've inflicted throughout the world over the last fifty years! We're at war with them, after all!

See what I mean? It makes it seem as if your town is a mysterious and dangerous place, full of enemies in every corner who would think nothing of raping and torturing an innocent soldier and that your local police force are a fierce and mighty enemy that can only be defeated by stealth technology and daring night time missions.

There, I just gave you a free lesson in how to write a made for TV movie.

The fact that none of that was true (as you, as a witness to the crash and the recovery and treatment of this Russian soldier inform the national press, along with the doctors and nurses who attended the soldier) is almost entirely dismissed by the Russian audience. Why? Because they already saw what had happened and you are, after all, an enemy!

Except for the fact, of course, that you weren't doing anything at all, but just living your life when the Russians decided to invade your country and attack your people. That makes the Russians the enemy, not you.

See what I'm getting at? The hype is what's at issue here and how that hype was deliberately initiated by the Army releasing that footage; footage that should have been classified top secret if in fact it was such a harrowing, daring and dangerous mission behind enemy lines.

The Russian intelligence operatives should have gone into your town undercover to check out the danger level and report back that there was none, other than, of course, the danger that they instigated upon themselves when they decided to invade your town. A few tanks or some air support along with a detachment of med-evac soldiers should have been more than sufficient show of force for them to then simply gone into the hospital--with weapons drawn, of course, since, again, their presence as the aggressors and invaders would naturally be held against them--and the soldier taken out into a med-evac unit. End of story.

But instead they made it seem like she was stabbed and shot in a desperate last ditch firefight against your town's evil police force and subjected to possible rape and torture by your town's evil doctors and nurses and police force (even though she was just a very low ranking "grunt" and would likely have no intelligence to offer, other than, "We're invading your country and killing your people"), and that she was in dire need of a rescue from the evil clutches of your fortified town, because that's the kind of generalized evil that exists in the hearts and minds of every single one of you Americans with your evil ways, which is why we invaded your country to begin with.

See? All hype that serves one thing; justification for the Russians to have instigated a war against your town.

And remember, the journalists all get their information primarily from official sources and sources they know who speak under anonymity. In other words, all of that hype came from the military in one way or another. It wasn't just made up by the reporters (unless they worked for the NY Times ); it all came from military sources and was allowed to aired without any corrections or subsequent retractions by the military that leaked it to begin with.

They supplied the video and they planted stories of a firefight and the "hero" myth in general and then said nothing to correct any of that once it was aired (ad nauseam) and the world "bought" the initial story.

Darwin26

...for the love of gawd Koy, This isn't gonna fly on TV with out a boy meets girl love interest ... No Flesh scenes ...uhhh re-write!
And of course the Good an Evil within her own ranks...Like in *Platoon * Evil Sgt vs Homeboy Sgt ...

there's a formula and the military was using that formula to get the violin heartstrings tuned, primed and pumped up for the good fight (ooooooh gag)

i couldn't agree with you more Koy, so right on and of couse it plays right along with the rest of the Lets go to War formula...


formula = food/pitch we feed to the unknowing so they will remain as such.

RLV

Good.

Bad. Not the respect, but the blind part.

If you ask my opinion, this is bad, too, but this is not the question. You can be a fervent Bush defender and then recognize a lie when it's told to you; even if it's told by Bush himself.

Frankly, I believe that this is precisely what has happened to you: you let the media (and the Bush gov't through it) convince you.


R.L.V.
~~#~~

Pain Paien

I know this isn't exactly on-topic, but I don't believe that statement is true. I was under the impression that there was a completely accidental artillery explosion on the Maine, and that it was portrayed by the press as an attack after the fact. If you could provide a source or sources to verify your assertation, I would be grateful.

ex-idaho

Your right I misspoke. The explosion was an accident but Hurst used the explosion to to further his personal agenda for war with Spain. Thanks for catching me.