What was the publics reaction to the capture of Jessica Lynch? Why did that thing catch fire?
The capture of the American forces in Nasiriya prompted a big public reaction, partly because one of those captured was this young private from West Virginia, Jessica Lynch — very attractive, appealing young woman who’d joined the Army because she thought she didn’t have many economic opportunities in her home state of West Virginia. She began to seem like a symbol of the new American Army, the all-volunteer Army, and her capture, along with those of her colleagues, was played very extensively for days. The initial reports of what Lynch did in the firefight– Explain what was happening there. It turns out the situation was chaotic in Nasiriya, and some initial reports suggested that a blonde American soldier had gone down emptying her weapon. People thought at first that might have been Lynch. Turned out to have been a male soldier who also had blonde hair, who did fire his weapon, who did die. There were some early reports that seemed to credit this with Lynch. The British press espe
