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Am I the only emotional ol' phardt (father of grown daughters) here who weeps at the thought of that lovely young PFC Jessica Lynch -- de facto noncombatant -- being so brutally abused by her captors? I'm glad she's alive and hope that her ordeal did not include sexual violation.

In contrast, all the heated arguments for and against the war seem cold and unfeeling.

I have been haunted by the video of the expression on the black female cook they captured, the look on her face. That is where my most fervent prayers have gone.
I have a serious problem with females any where near combat except in case of a nation's very survival as in Israel. I know some like the female pilots know the risks of capture, but I doubt that this cook ever thought that her job could get her into such a horrific situation.

No, Ken. I can assure you you're not the only one. I've got three daughters of my own and these kind of things just tear at my guts.

I'm happy as a clam that the young lady is back with our troops!!
That said, i agree with Boss. She NEVER should have been there.

And truthfully, would we and the press be carrying on to this degree if the POW had been a male? I don't think so. We'd be happy- but not near the fuss..

The look on the black cook's face--- I hope every female who is thinking about"joining up" sees that "look." Maybe they will begin to phathom that military service entails more than receiving "benefits" for college etc..

Well, this pretty much expresses my feelings about American Women and their role in a combat situation..

Now I wish I hadn't started this thread. IMO, it's not the time or place for opinions about whether those cherished women should've been there. I guess it's just impossible for some people to feel anything without getting negatively judgemental and airing preexisting pet peeves.

Why is it so hard to feel and express compassion for persons separate from and totally independent of negative political opinions? The compulsory inclusion of the latter, IMO, significantly dilutes the former and gives it an air of insincerity.

This kind of criticism, in this thread, smacks of the Saudi "thinking" that friends of mine encountered when I lived and worked in Jeddah. If you took a cab, say, from the airport to Saudia City, and a Saudi crossed the median and smashed head-on into your cab, killing the driver, YOU'd be judged guilty of his death. The "reasoning" was that if you hadn't hired him, he wouldn't've been there just then, and the Saudi who crossed the median wouldn't've hit him. Give me a break! Can't we feel compassion for those good American GI women without compulsion to express negative judgement? Color me disgusted.

Ken,

I surely hate to speculate upon the words of others,but am thinking that you are miffed at nothingness. All here are rooting for the welcome return of PFC Lynch(as well as I can cypher prior Posts). Though some are lamenting the circumstances of the event(myself heartily included).

Commentary I perused,simply suggested the young gal's plight could(SHOULD) have been avoided. Right,wrong or indiffierent,that remains a tragic shame and should not(in my humble opinion) be relegated to being swept under the rug.

I wish her and her's nothing but the most sincere of well wishes,but shall remain frustrated that the event was allowed to take place.

Call me old fashioned,but the front line (or vacinity) is not the place for USGI females and a single incident of this kind is once too many.

Your mileage may vary.........................

Ken with out the sort of humanity exhibited by your post the individual is lost to the masses. Jessica is a reminder that the Army of Americans deployed in Iraq are our son's and daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers not just vast numbers of uniformed individuals bearing arms. I support the troops of freedom but not always the comanders who put these troops in harms way. These young soldiers, be they American, British, Iraq kurd, Australian, or any one else who fights the tyrants of this world , are following orders that may cause them to be harmed or killed deserve nothing but our full support. The issue of women in a combat zone need not apply at this time, they are there, and they need us to be 100% behind them. We can question wether or not they should have been in the combat arena after hostilities have ended.

Bullwnkl.

Whether or not those wonderful women should've been there (exposed, susceptible, vulnerable) has nothing to do with the way that the abuse they've gotten tears at my innards. When my daughters suffered, I suffered -- whether or not "they shouldn't've been there." Jessica, I confess, affects me more deeply than the other girl does -- she looks not a little like my own blonde beauty at that age, and the effect of that's devastating.

Yes, I'm touchy-feely in this context, which IMO is totally apart from any dispassionate, objective consideration of the matter.

I'm not a killer --but that morning when a thug hiding in the doorway of an under-construction mall stepped out and grabbed my beautiful blonde girl on her way to junior high, I could've been, if I'd been there. Never mind how I generally feel about killing humans. Never mind whether she should've taken a different route to school. I got kinda fierce too when a cop "friend" thought it was funny enough to joke about in public. Never had any respect for him again.

Dr. Howell
Is it possible that you misunderstood the motives and feelings in our posts?
Did I not say the exact thing that you did when you wondered if the girl had been abused and I stated that is where my most fervent prayers had been going to, except that you were happy over a girl rescued where I am praying for the safety of one who has not been rescued and only God knows her plight.
The neighbor across the street from me lost his 18 or 19 year old daughter in an auto accident. A drunk driver killed her. He was overcome with grief and still is to this day but at the time of her death and since he was outraged at the injustice of the circumstances of her death and he went to every parole board meeting about the driver. In other words, he had two overwhelming feelings at the same time when she died, grief and the agony over the injustice of the circumstances. You cannot separate the two in some cases and they go side by side. To call American men's natural craving for their women to be safe and out of harm's way a "pet peeve" leaves you out on a limb that breaks every time.

I hope she returns and recovers. But I believe women and children should be the last line of defense. They should never be involved in an offensive front. In other words, IMHO, what the hell was a nineteen year old female doing over there? See where PC feminists have gotten us.

Boss, I maintain that a disciplined human mind (and mouth) CAN distinguish between feelings and opinions. Consider this separate example:

After my wife died (15 December 1989), I wrote (and had commercially printed) an announcement of her death and mailed copies to our friends around the world. The heading of this announcement was "Christmas in Heaven." The subject was clearly the death of my wife, and the point was clearly to let our friends know that she had just died. By no means was there any logical way to misread that announcement as a Christian tract.

The response from one insensitive "friend" was appalling. He fired back a long letter on the theme "I don't buy any of that stupidity about 'God.'" Not a word about the subject of the announcement -- just a tirade about how foolish it was (but he wasn't!) to believe in God, Heaven, the Bible, etc.

He didn't -- possibly couldn't -- separate the matter of Carol Anne's death from his preexisting hostility toward mention of God and related matters, such as the family's feelings, plans, etc. In turn, I didn't -- definitely couldn't -- answer his letter.

Yes, I do indeed understand the motives and feelings expressed in the posts that I find so out of place here. I even agree with many of them. When I could eat real food, I enjoyed pizza and ice cream, too -- but not inseparably. IMO, we should be equally able to express feelings and opinions with something approaching the same kind of self-control.

If you were extending your condolences to the grieving parents of a young man killed in a bank robbery, I'd hope that you could do so without sermonizing to them about how he shouldn't've been trying to rob the bank. It's no accident that the word discretion comes from the word discrete (separate, apart). Discretion of thought is an admirable quality. Discretion of expression is even more desirable.

I'm glad she was rescued. I want them all rescued. Male or female.
It doesn't matter what gender the Pfc. was, we all are glad to have her back.
Should she have been in a position to have been captured at all? No. no.no.
War is A CONTACT SPORT. Women need not apply.
Who can say that one of the men didn't die needlessly and in vain trying to protect her at the time of capture? We may find out after she publishes her account for the money she will be paid.
But it boils down to the policy of the military as an equal opp. employer instead of a war fighting machine, an entitlement even.
Ken, I wish I could have been there to save your child for you, I would have done it simply because I am a man and will protect any woman or child if in a position to do so. nuff said

Dr. Howell
What that man wrote you was more than inappropriate obviously. It should have been his sympathies only. I think the posters after me were responding to the cook's plight. We are not blaming her. That would be ridiculous. I feel for her more strongly than any image I have seen from this conflict. She said something to the effect on the video I saw that she was only a cook. There was a fear, helplessness, shock, etc on her face. Men react viscerally to the safety and protection of women and she is an American and I and I can assure you, the overwhelming majority of American men do not want our women any place near danger which means that at the same time I am overwhelmed by her circumstances, that I don't like how she got into that circumstance, and I want our commanders to take steps to do everything in their power to keep our women out of danger. I can, in fact, be terribly saddened by her plight and irritated and indignant at the same time. The poster who said they should be aware of what they are getting in to when they sign up was not giving our commanders the ok to put them in dangerous situations. The person you mentioned, Jessica is a cause for rejoicing. I mentioned a different case, that ultimately may be very sad. What I have heard has happened to her since the showing of that video is too sickening to repeat here. I think you are assigning motives to us that simply are not true.

Amen Dr. Howell,

When I saw that she had been rescued on the 1st I was elated. Although my blond curly haired girl is considerably younger (4 yrs old) I share your emotions on this news.

(Glad you posted the other topic too...)

I haven't read this whole thread but wanted to add what I heard this morning about Jessica and her being captured. What I heard filled me with pride and joy; apparently she went down with a good fight. She took out "several" Iraqi's and was captured only after firing her weapon until depleted of ammo. She was rushed at the end and received several gun shot wounds as well as being stabbed. I tell you what, that is one tough soldier and I'm glad she's on our side.

... and she wasn't assigned to a combat zone or in a combat role -- facts generally ignored by pontificators soap-boxing above about "women in combat."

Thanks for passing this news along. Now more than ever I ache to hug that little lady!

I'm thinkin' thet young lady did us all proud puttin' up the fight she did. There outta be a silver star in it for her. As for wimmin in combat, I don't see where she did anythin' but what she was trained, took the best they had, an' still came back a hero. I admit to sheddin' a tear or two for Jessica, not outta sympathy though. I'm simply proud of her beyond words.

Some people like to argue when there was never anything to argue about. s
Since Mule(an appropriate description) jumped in, I now know it was all paranoid delusional to begin with.
I am glad for Jessica . I PRAY for the cook.

I feel the same emotion that Ken expressed in his initial post. These emotions then lead to other thoughts in my mind also.

I just want to say how happy I am about the event however. I have an active political mind but this good news about Jessica touches me. I could argue the side topics on other threads.

One last observation and i'll call it done. Ken, i don't think their is a soul on this forum who is not ecstatic that PFC Lynch is safe.

Arguably things in the military have changed since i was a Marine almost 30 years ago. Strike that! Since i was in a Marine uniform.

Then-everyone was given a specifis MOS or job title. The basic combat infantryman was an 0311. But it was understood that every Marine carried this basic MOS no matter if he was latter assigned a Mos of cook, administrator or artilleryman. Didn't mean doodly-squat if you were "in the rear with the beer and the gear" if it hit the fan. You were, first and foremost,considered to be a rifleman.

If memory serves me- the Battle of the Bulge was an example ot this principal. Cooks, mechanics etc were given rifles and were told to fight.

WAR plays by no man's rules.