"[U]nravelling like hasty knitting" is how the Sydney Morning Herald describes the lies surrounding the story of Private Jessica Lynch -- a story which has been spun into a made-for-TV movie to be shown Sunday night.

In an article titled "The Rambo who wasn't," Gerard Wright reports on the "show" that was made out of a "rescue" which happened on April Fool's Day.

"I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do," Lynch said, in a television interview to be broadcast in the US on Tuesday. "I did not shoot, not a round, nothing ... I went down praying to my knees. And that's the last I remember."

Propaganda didn't get better than this: a blonde heroine, short and slight, from a town called Palestine, West Virginia. Jessica Lynch joined the army to help pay for her university education. She is not happy with her new life as a military fable.

"It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about," Lynch told interviewer Diane Sawyer. "Only I would have been able to know that, because the other four people on my vehicle aren't here to tell the story. So I would have been the only one able to say, 'yeah, I went down shooting'. But I didn't."

Asked if the Pentagon's portrayal of her rescue bothered her, Lynch replied, "Yeah, it does. It bothers me that they used me as a way to symbolise this stuff. Yeah, it's wrong." [Emphasis mine]

You may recall the stories earlier this year of Lynch supposedly "fighting to the death" (quoting "U.S. officials"), the House Resolution submitted in her honor, and the general mythology which surrounded her rescue.

And let's not forget the "rape" element (don't hyperventilate waiting for that scene, if they even put it in the movie) also being spoon-fed to the gullible audience via the simultaneous release of the book "I Am a Soldier, Too" by Rick Bragg -- another New York Times reporter of questionable integrity. The whirlwind of lies calls into question the events of the rescue, and therefore, the heroism of the rescuers.

Who really saved Private Lynch? According to the Herald article quoted above, 2 days prior to the rescue, Iraqi doctors tried to turn Lynch over to American forces because she wanted American medical care. However, their ambulance was fired upon and had to return to the hospital. Even the medical staff of the hospital from which she was "rescued," in a country which was being heavily attacked by Lynch's army, donated their own blood to save her life. They were humanitarians. Certain "U.S. officials," however, would prefer if you saw the Iraqis as a homogeneous gang of thugs.

Private Lynch may not have been the hero they made her out to be, but she will be now because she has the courage to tell the real story -- which only she could know -- despite the myths which might make some people feel better about this unjust war. If those who pushed for this war would dare try to discredit Lynch now, they'll have to make up even more lies. These lies are the rope with which they will hang themselves.

AFTERTHOUGHT (PREEMPTIVE TROLL REPELLENT): If you're among the zombies who believe(d) that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11, then you're probably latching onto the part about "no memory" like a baby latches onto its mothers tit. You probably think that our "leaders" know what "really happened" better than Private Lynch does. To you I would only say this: even Rick Bragg says she lost only 3 hours. If she were anally gangraped, she might be able to figure it out all by her "Rambo-in-distress" self.

*REVISION: The previous awkward title, "The truth in time saves nine lies," has been replaced with one I hijacked from Wolf Blitzer. I couldn't stand looking at the original one any longer.