womzilla | Spinning Pvt. Lynch

Okay, I can't claim that this one is a perfectly documented case of unadulterated lying on the part of the US military, but I'm inclined to believe it is.

Here's an account of the rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch, as related by CENTCOM Brigadier General Vincent Brooks on 2 April:

BRIGADIER GEN. VINCENT BROOKS: There was not a firefight inside of the building, I will tell you, but there were fire fights outside of the building, getting in and getting out. There were no coalition casualties as a result of this and in the destruction that occurred inside of the building, particularly in the basement area where the operations centers had been, we found ammunition, mortars, maps, a terrain model, and other things that make it very clear that it was being used as a military command post. The nature of the operation was a coalition special operation that involved Army Rangers, Air Force pilots and combat controllers, U.S. Marines, and Navy Seals. It was a classic joint operation done by some of our nation's finest warriors, who are dedicated to never leaving a comrade behind.

Here's the lede of an article from Rupert Murdoch's The Times (of London), a pro-war newspaper, April 16:

THE rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, which inspired America during one of the most difficult periods of the war, was not the heroic Hollywood story told by the US military, but a staged operation that terrified patients and victimised the doctors who had struggled to save her life, according to Iraqi witnesses.

Doctors at al-Nasiriyah general hospital said that the airborne assault had met no resistance and was carried out a day after all the Iraqi forces and Baath leadership had fled the city.

(Courtesy of

baldanders.)

I have no problem with American troops proceeding with caution through a building which had only the day before been under the control of hostile forces. I have a big-as-hell problem with generals lying about the presence of enemy troops to make their forces look more heroic.