Jessica Lynch Quotes
Certain days I think definitely because we went in there and we got Saddam and that was our mission. On other days, we lost so many lives and so many brothers and sisters... on that aspect, no.
Lynch, Jessica. Interview. CNN, 19 Mar. 2013.
His balanced judgment and concern for American Casualties changed during the Iraq War over a decade later where he insisted on taking steady American casualties even after Saddam had been deposed and American troops were in the middle of a sectarian civil war.
This statement was made in the first phase of the Iraq war where Cheney and President Bush thought the war was won. After that there were thousands of Americans killed in the war. Critics of the administration war policy threw this quotation up to him.
All deceased American troops who were killed in the Middle East were returned to the mortuary unit at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, In previous wars the press had access to the mortuary and showed pictures of the flag draped caskets returning. However in the Iraq War, the administration, trying to deemphasize the high American death toll of troops, made Dover off limits to the press and made all the processes secret. However, the exact number of casualties and their identities became known through other sources and the media ran photo of the deceased.
The last phrase was a variation of the famous Bismarck quotation {594849}.
See {618046} for an even earlier statement of this point.
The General had differed with the George W. Bush Administration neoconservatives over the strategy regarding the invasion and war in Iraq. He was pushed out of office as a result. Later, it was clear that he was right originally, and the press, some members of Congress and others wanted him to comment. He refused.
The Congress had applauded his message vigorously.
The only soldier ever so honored
Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former United States Army soldier who served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003, Private First Class Lynch was serving as a unit supply specialist with the 507th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi forces during the Battle of Nasiriyah. Lynch was seriously injured and captured. Her subsequent recovery by U.S. Special Operations Forces on April 1, 2003 received considerable media coverage; it was the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II and the first ever of a woman.
