Jessica Lynch is a real person, but also a symbol. To Americans she's a symbol of every soldier risking their lives in Iraq. To Norwegians, she's a symbol of the phonyness of the whole war. Americans see a young woman who fought for her country, nearly died, and came back alive. Norwegians see one of many attractions at the Big Media Circus, operated by shady Pentagon officials for the purpose of whipping up a pro-war frenzy among the easily up-whippable American masses.

Naturally, then, when Lynch returned to her home town last week, Americans cheered, and Norwegians sneered. Media reports took the tone of passing on a dirty secret as they informed us that, far from the original heroic spin, Lynch was injured when her truck crashed, and didn't actually kill any Iraqis. This is supposedly news, hushed down news (the tastiest kind), though it's been known for some time, and was uncovered by the same American media that told the original story. The "Bush & Big Media conspire to deceive public" story template rarely fits well, but here even less than usual.

Two of the worst examples of this were by Ole Walberg at the NTB wire service. Reader (and honorary Norwegian) Gill Doyle wrote a letter about it to Aftenposten, the only newspaper to publish both articles, but they didn't want it, so I'm publishing it here, (slightly edited):

Here's a particularly nasty piece of writing from our Norwegian cousins. The article appeared yesterday in Aftenposten, and an individual named Ole Walberg takes responsibility for it. The article attacks Jessica Lynch, the American military, the American media, the Bush administration, and the American people in general. Here is some of what Mr. Walberg has to say about us: "'War hero' Jessica Lynch goes home." Mr. Walberg puts "war hero" in quotation marks in order to convey his contempt for the notion that Private Lynch should be regarded by anyone as any kind of hero. Walberg continues, as follows:

Jessica was treated by Iraqi doctors. And she was not treated for gunshot and knife wounds, but for broken bones that she sustained when her jeep collided with the vehicle in front of hers. These small details were forgotten when Jessica Lynch was brought home Tuesday in a Blackhawk military helicopter. Lynch has for a good while now been the principal character in a soap opera which has been cooked up and produced by military propaganda and patriotic journalists. "In the United States it doesn't matter any more what is true and what is false. The people have got used to accepting anything sentimental stories, lies, and threats of WMD."

Walberg attributes this opinion to one John MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine, though it is clear that Mr. Walberg is himself in wholehearted agreement with the idea that Americans can't tell fact from fiction. Mr. Walberg finds other quotes that he likes and sticks those, too, in his article:

"The trouble here is that the [American] news media believed that they could rely on the government," says Carolyn Marvin, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. [..] "This case stank from the very beginning," says Michael Getler. His own newspaper, the Washington Post, was among the first to tell about Jessica Lynch and her heroic exploits.

Today, in a followup to this article, Aftenposten notes that Lynch, in a speech given yesterday, thanked Iraqi doctors for the help they gave her. Of course, in yesterday's article, Mr. Walberg had written sarcastically about how the Iraqi doctors had been snubbed. "Jessica was treated by Iraqi doctors," Mr. Walberg wrote. "These small details were forgotten when Jessica Lynch was brought home Tuesday in a Blackhawk military helicopter." And so it turns out that Mr. Walberg was wrong about that, after all. Aftenposten hastens today to give credit to Private Lynch, but never bothers to admit its error of the day before. In the followup to yesterday's article, Aftenposten criticizes the Washington Post for not making clear to its readers that Jessica Lynch is no hero. Today's article concludes by ridiculing the ceremonies in Jessica's home town a pageant the writer clearly feels is bogus, since, in his eyes, Jessica Lynch is undeserving of a hero's welcome.

There is a good deal to criticize in these two articles in today's article and in yesterday's. And after reading both articles, I end up with fewer questions about my own country than about the competence, integrity, and humanity of Aftenposten's staff. To begin with, Mr. Walberg's piece really belongs on the editorial page and not on the news page. Aftenposten ought to know the difference between reportage and opinion. Had Mr. Walberg been writing a piece on American dissent, then his three quotes would have been apt, since they do tell us what three American critics of the Jessica Lynch affair have to say about it. However, Mr. Walberg has not used those quotes in order to illustrate specifically American feelings about the Jessica Lynch story. Rather, he has used them to convey his own feelings about the affair. This is not journalism at all it is simply a dishonest attempt to sway the reader. Aftenposten's own opposition to the war in Iraq has caused it to willfully misconstrue the Jessica Lynch affair and portray it as American propaganda and American patriotism gone berserk.

Both articles tell the reader that the American government and its military lied to the American people. Today's article also accuses the Washington Post of hiding the truth from its readers. In fact, everyone in America who has paid attention to this story knows the truth now, and the truth is not quite as ugly as Aftenposten would have it. American intelligence intercepted Iraqi field communications shortly after or during the firefight in which Pfc. Lynch was injured. Iraqi combatants were heard to discuss an American soldier who fought valiantly, who was shot and stabbed. In fact, there was such an individual, but it was not Jessica Lynch. The hero in question was a young man from Salem, Oregon a U.S. Army cook who apparently fought as described, was shot, stabbed, and killed. American intelligence mistakenly identified Pfc. Lynch as the individual who fought to the death. Reporters ran with the story before anyone got around to checking his facts. Much as Mr. Walberg did yesterday when he accused Lynch of ingratitude to her Iraqi doctors. When the Army discovered its mistake, it kept quiet about its error and allowed reporters to go with the wrong hero. The rescue was real, though little or no opposition was encountered by American special forces who went in for Pfc. Lynch. These facts are now well known here in America. Why does Aftenposten continue to hide from its own readers the true facts of the case and America's understanding of those facts today? Today's Aftenposten article hypocritically turns the tables on the Washington Post and criticizes the American paper for hiding the truth from its readers. In fact, the Washington Post, when it discovered its mistake in reporting, dug deep to find the truth and report it. Everyone knows this, since the Post's apology was in itself news. Aftenposten cannot be so incompetent as to have missed that story. Here, again, Aftenposten has simply lied to its readers. The Washington Post article that corrected many of the initial errors in Jessica's story is here, for those who are interested.

Aftenposten accuses the American people (all 280 million of us, I guess) of being incapable of telling fact from fiction. That particular accusation is just too asinine to bother with. A paper of Aftenposten's reputed stature should not stoop to such childish assertions.

Finally, I want to say something about Private Lynch and her status as American war hero. Aftenposten's writers have struggled, but failed to understand why Lynch is received in America as she has been. Aftenposten wants to believe that the American government has deceived the American people. It wants also to believe that the American people are too gullible to discern the truth. It believes that a twenty-year old girl who has merely broken some bones in a car accident is unworthy of anyone's respect or gratitude. Here, I have to say, Aftenposten's staff has revealed itself to be of paltry heart and imagination. I know that Jessica is not the Rambo that she was initially made out to be. We all of us here in America know that by now. It doesn't matter. The girl went over there for her country and was seriously hurt in the line of duty. She made that sacrifice, and we are grateful to her for it. We know she never killed anyone. We know she was not shot or stabbed. We know what happened. We are still grateful for what she has done. Furthermore, Jessica stands in for all the young people who were killed or hurt over there and for all the kids who are still there and can't come home, but will have to stay till the job is done. That's why Jessica matters. I would have thought that some smart Norwegian journalists could have figured this out.

A very well written letter and a shame that Aftenpost didn't feel fit to publish it. If the standard of letters published there is anywhere near as low as the Australian media, perhaps the paper felt it would lift the standards of the letters page too much.

Or else they may have felt it was too long.

Anyway Bjorn kudos to you for publishing it here.

Actually, the car crash story may be mistaken as well.

See http://windsofchange.net/archives/003764.html

I don't recall this story breaking out as Jessica Lynch the "Rambo-ette" heroine story. It was a "look at this first casulty of Bush's silly little war" story. And they picked a good subject to arouse people's interest and hence, the demand for more information and the media scramble to fill it. So sure, it became a media circus.

The belief that the US military started this Lynch story is completely bogus. They won't comment on it after the notify the soldier's family. So these writers aren't really upset that she's called a hero. They are upset that their propaganda opportunity was taken away from them. They are up set that she wasn't gang rapped. They are upset that she wasn't mutilated and left to die in a ditch... alone... in the rain.

I've come to loathe and despise Scandinavia so much by now. This just adds more weight.

Kudos to Gill Doyle. I wish I had the time and energy to try to engage Scandinavians in a debate about all these issues. But it's impossible to break through an ideological mindset that's been set in stone since state-supported kindergarten.

It's easier to just regard these countries as our false allies, and close off co-operation on a number of fronts. Most notably, some countries should be ASKED to leave NATO. Why should we conceivably commit future Jessica Lynch's to protect their sorry asses?

A very well-written letter, indeed.

Markku, how clever. Respond to rabid anti-Americanism with rabid anti-Norwegianism. At least now you know how media stereotypes get converted into hatred for an entire population.

Actually, the American population would probably be closer to 300 million if all the illegal Mexican immigrants were counted accurately, and if Aftenposten were translated into Spanish its treatment of the Lynch story would get the same contemptuous reaction from them as it gets from the rest of us.

I guess Markku is very clever considering his rabid anti Norwegian outbursts were made during extreme scheduling conflicts and perhaps a bout of acute anemia or maybe even mono. Since he didn't indicate that he was too thirsty to engage the Scandinavians, I'm going to rule out diabeties. I'm not a trained medical doctor, but I am worried what may happen if Mr Nordtrom is allowed to post after a two week holiday.

And here I thought Newsweek broke the story last week that she was injured AFTER she was captured, she only had minor injuries before.

I thought her breaks were consistent with a beating w/a riflebutt. And she was a couple hours away from being terminated.

Fortunately for her, she might never remember. I thought she was also raped, but haven't been following it too closely.

Obviously, neither has Aftenposten.

I don't know exactly what happened to PFC Jessica Lynch. Maybe she was Rambo, maybe she wasn't. But as the wife of an Armor Lieutenant, I feel bitter that so much attention was paid to her alone. She did become the symbol of all soldiers in Iraq...so much so that all other soldiers were forgotten. How many of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have gone over there can we name? One, maybe two if you count the media's brief love affair with Shoshanna Jackson. Other than these two females, can we name any others? Can we name any male soldiers? PFC Lynch went to Iraq and did her job. She had a rougher time of it than most other soldiers. But a Bronze Star? One of the highest military honors, just for being America's Sweetheart? I have a hard time feeling it is justified. I don't agree with the Aftenposten that PRC Lynch is undeserving of a hero's welcome, only that every servicemember who was in Iraq should deserve the same treatment if that's what she gets...

Markku: I agree with Jan - that's just childish. It's one thing whether you consider Norway to be a reliable ally - under the present government and in the present situation I wouldn't - but to loathe all Scandinavia? That's the easy way out - the same way Norwegians take when they decide that Americans aren't just _wrong_, they're also stupid and evil. Its pure emotion, unrelated to the actual attitudes towards the US in Scandinavia, and the differences between the Scandinavian countries. For instance: Denmark _has_ been a reliable ally after September 11, Norway unreliable but still an ally (to the extent that American objectives overlap with UN objectives), and Sweden not one at all. And that's just the governments - there are also the media and the people to consider, each with their own factions and attitudes. My main quarrel lately has been with the uniformly anti-American media - but that doesn't directly translate to a uniformly anti-American people or government. The truth is complex. I'm not fighting anti-American stereotypes just to replace then with anti-Scandinavian stereotypes.

I'm surprised that anyone outside of the U.S. would give two thoughts to the whole deal.

A young woman did her job. She was rescued when she needed to be. That makes people (especially the people in her home town) happy.

On a scale of 1-10 for relative importance to the American people this whole deal is about a 0.5 right now... It's nice. It makes you smile. That's it. The idea that this gets any mention whatsoever in the press in Norway is odd to me.

Given a chance to watch a football game, go to the beach, or go to a parade honoring Jessica Lynch - 98% of America would be watching football or feeling sand between their toes. Outside of West Virginia this is just not that big of a deal. It's just a nice feel-good story.

I honestly cannot believe that anyone is talking about it at this point.

Houston: But they are, so what you're saying applies more to how you think things should be than to how they really are. Symbols matter, and the Iraq war matters, for those who are for it and those who are against. One person can symbolize an event that involves a houndred thousand people because one person is a lot, and a houndred thousand a lot more than we can empathize with. So one person or a few persons become symbols. They may not be relatively important, and it may not be fair to everyone else, but its a result of people caring deeply about the war, not people making wrong priorities.

Honorary Norwegian!? Wow! I am ... well ... honored. The best way to get a man to come over to your side — particularly a man who is feeling ambivalent, to begin with, about you or your club — is to make him an honorary member of the club.

I agree with Houston when he says that the Jessica Lynch story is not that big a deal anymore. Not over here, anyway. In fact, it was always a bigger story in Europe, I thought, than it was in America. Though for very different reasons, as Bjørn has pointed out. It was the BBC, I think, that turned this feel-good story into the Pentagon conspiracy that it is perceived to be in Europe. I have a brother-in-law in Switzerland who was beside himself almost with indignation when this story was first interpreted in Europe some months ago. I recall that I was perplexed at that time to hear him rant about how Americans were supposedly trooping to the alter of Mars with vestal virgin Jessica as point man. I tried to assure him then that the Nuremberg rallies that he had heard we were organizing here were only the tailgate parties that Houston reports attending outside Texas Stadium. The war whoops that my brother-in-law had heard on his side of the Atlantic merely signalled another Cowboys' touchdown, I told him. The Jessica Lynch story got a very different spin over there and whipped up more passion in Europe, I think, than in America itself.

The letter that Bjørn prints here is a letter that I fired off at a Norwegian newspaper called Aftenposten. It's really the Norwegian media and the anti-Americanism that has taken root in Norway (and in other parts of Western Europe) that get me riled up from time to time. Occasionally, when my anger gets the better of me, and reason flies out the window, I turn my guns on the Norwegian people themselves — all of them. This I always regret doing. After all, the sort of hatred that clouds a person's judgment is the very thing that we are fighting now to eliminate.

- Gill

I believe what really should be the focus is how often did the Red Cross visit Pfc. Lynch and other POWs and how many letters the Red Cross delivered to their families.

Bjorn:

I hear you. Symbols are indeed important. My point is that the general thesis of these editorials that focus on Lynch follow this general thought process:
1. Lynch is a big American hero (This is not always explicitly stated, but it is the underlying premise.)
2. She is a false hero
3. She was created to be a hero by “the Pentagon” (in other words, it was not shoddy reporting – it was a lie cooked up by the Pentagon.)
4. The Pentagon/Bush – are all evil liars

Point 1 isn’t true. Therefore, the rest of the thesis/editorial is just blather.

This is part of what I was trying to say above. In order for this great deception/lie/calamity to have happened, we, as Americans, would have to see Lynch as a great hero. We don’t.

The press in Western Europe may try to play it that way, but it’s simply not true. Americans, for the most part, viewed it as a nice, feel-good story. Nothing more.

So, rather than challenge the nature of the truth, why not just make clear that the very first premise of the argument is based on the FALSE presumption that Americans were duped into believing Lynch was a great hero.

Gill: "Occasionally, when my anger gets the better of me, and reason flies out the window, I turn my guns on the Norwegian people themselves — all of them. This I always regret doing. After all, the sort of hatred that clouds a person's judgment is the very thing that we are fighting now to eliminate."

You're quite right. However, I don't think you should regret expressing anger. We have a right to be angry, as we are constanly being victimized by Europeans.

Bjorn: when I criticize Scandinavia, please bear in mind that I am Scandinavian, too (well, if you include Swedish-Finns as a part of Scandinavia). I know the culture very well, having lived there, and having many contacts in business, government, and politics there.

Ingrained Anti-Americanism can be found in all levels of society in Scandinavia. What has always galled me is that their "wonderful" social welfare states continue to be subsidised, essentially, by the American worker-consumer. Scandinavians turn a blind eye to this fact; the refusal to even consider the economic evidence is astounding. This refusal is rooted in ideological conviction: admitting it would be an admission that the social welfare state model is a failure. It cannot survive without support from the outside.

Some time ago I read a long tome on the history of Sweden. There was a very interesting passage which described the emigration of Scandinavians to America at the turn of the last century (Scandinavia was then mostly a poverty-stricken part of the world). What was fascinating was how many of these immigrants continued to send remittances of their earnings back to Scandinavia, - in such numbers that approximately 20% of the GNP of Sweden in 1900 consisted of money sent home from America.

And it hasn't changed. Europe enjoys an approximate $50 billion trade surplus to America - and has enjoyed a surplus for quite some time. Take away the much-maligned American worker-consumer, then who will step in to buy the BMWs, the Volvos, Nokias, L'Oreals, etc? Who has that kind of cash to spend? Answer: the hard-working, low-taxed American worker-consumer.

So Scandinavian Anti-Americanism is especially galling to me. I don't make any apologies for my contempt. Scandinavians deserve it.

Markku: Btw, what exactly is the evidence that Americans subsidize the Norwegian welfare-state? I've seen you make that claim fairly often, but I've never heard it from anyone else, so I'd appreciate if you could direct me to some detailed explanation and numbers on it.

I'm glad that Sarah, the American lieutenant's wife, wrote in with her two-cents worth. Her comments prove you don't have to work for Aftenposten to be small-minded and mean-spirited.

Btw, sweetie, the Bronze Star is not "[o]ne of the highest military honors." It's next to the lowest: in combat, they're passed out like candy (I have three).

Bjorn: of course, there are no direct subsidies going to the Norwegian welfare state, but that's not the point. The number to look at is the trade surplus (or deficit, if you're American). Deficits are in effect massive transfers of wealth. Surpluses amount to a cash infusion to the recipient. It is this cash that continues to finance European economies (the European welfare states tax their workers so much that they cannot muster the same kind of economic power that American worker-consumers have).

While Norway particularly doesn't have that many export products other than oil (much of which, I seem to recall, doesn't go to the US), it is quite plausible to hold that the price of oil - which directly benefits the Norwegian welfare state - is maintained mostly by the appetite of the US consumer. In fact, ironically, it would be disastrous for Norway if the US institutes conservation policies and becomes self-sufficient in terms of oil. The resulting decline in the price of oil would not benefit Norway (though, as I understand it, Norway has been quite good in instituting savings policies now that the times are good).

While the economies of some European states are not that dependent on the US, the key states are, - most notably Germany, which is the economy that the smaller European states are dependent on.

The US, however, is really not that dependent on European products. Everything the Europeans make can be found somewhere else, or manufactured here at home. However, Americans do have a lot of investments in Europe which, of course, we would want to see thrive as we would only benefit.

It's funny: in America, we're taught that the customer is king. To succeed in competition it behooves everyone to treat the customer nicely. This dictum is not understood in Europe, where the best customers of the Europeans - the Americans - are constantly, publicly maligned.

Americans should vent their ire more, loudly and persistently. We know, from experience, that it is death for any business to alienate its customers. There is the vague possibility that even Europeans could finally come to realize this.

Houston in his posts is directly on-the-mark. Also underlying all of this is the fact that Americans are just cooler than Europeans. Europeans want desperately to always portray Americans as dumbf***s who don't 'get it', yet we are pretty much the ONLY people who get it. (Those of us who are not desperately trying to mirror European mental retardation.)

I think your right ct. The need to be kewl gets increasingly ridiculous as one grows older. Maybe this could be the new slogan for Europe. "Leni Refenshtal... it's time to put away the spandex cat suit!"

hello i hope you can help me. my 12 year old daughter is doing a socail studies project on jesica lynch. she wants to write her a letter, but we cant find no address for her. is htere any way u can help. it would be very appreciated. thank you for your time.

Markku,

Has is ever occured to you that the trade deficit might be related to quality? I mean, who in their right mind drives American?

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AlphaPatriot: So..., July 30, 2003 06:27 AM

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water: Condescension in Aftenposten, July 31, 2003 05:11 AM

One of the things that underpins anti-Americanism is the notion that Americans really are stupid. Bjorn Staerk reprints a letter that Aftenposten deigned not to. The Aftenposten articles (originally from the NTB wire service reporter Ole Walberg) are h...