With all respect to Kathy Kinsley, Private First Class Lynch seems to be quite the warrior princess. She apparently received her gunshot wounds while ventilating several Iraqis, shooting until she ran out of ammunition. I'm guessing she only had a thirty-round clip on her M-16.

Note to Islamofascists--our women can beat your men, and they don't have to strap dynamite to their bellies to do it.

It's amazing that they let her live. Perhaps it was to torture her to get others to talk. There's no punishment too harsh for these creatures, though I suspect that most of them received an undeservedly merciful death in the rescue operation.

She'll get a Purple Heart, but I think she should be up for at least a Bronze Star as well. She deserves the free college education that West Virginia is offering her, but I hope she gets better offers, and set her sights higher than an education degree.

Rand in principle I agree that she should set her sights high, however, why not a teacher? She is obviously a very brave person, with a sense of duty to her self, her comrades and her countries defense. If that is not the type of person we need in the classroom, front office and on the teachers side of the school board then I misunderdstood who it is we want to teach our kids. Maybe, just maybe, she could teach history or social studies to young skulls full of mush, WITHOUT the usual liberal guilty apologies for our American success. She may lead students to join the military who might not have considered it as an option. She may lead some student to also become a teacher who will follow her lead to make changes in the world. I'll even grant that she would be lost in a majority of public school systems, but private schools need teachers too.

I disagree with your assertion the she is not setting her sights high enough, if she gets her Education Degree. I can think of few other professions that potentially contribute as much.

You are a very, very bright, forward seeing person Rand, surely you had least one teacher who made a difference in your life.

I'd think many parents would value having their children in the classroom with Pfc Lynch. I think she would make a very positive impact on their lives.

Of all the people I've learned from, the ones from whom I learned the most did not have education degrees.

I didn't say she shouldn't be a teacher. I said she should get a real education.

Bronze Star?

Remember that the majority of her company managed to back out and escape the ambush. If it can be established that her defense contributed to their escape, and was apparently "with no regard to her personal safety", she could very well be up for a Congressional Medal of Honor.

As things stand, a Silver Star or possibly DSC. It's the members of her extraction team who should be up for Bronze Stars, if you ask me.

I said "at least a Bronze Star." I agree.

RE: torture

That may be the case.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/72425p-67094c.html

I agree with Steve. We need more people like this in our schools.

Although it would be delicious to see her get advanced degrees and make onto the Columbia U. faculty - imagine what she'd do with the "Million Mogadishus" prof and his ilk.

Just as Eisenhower was the best German general in WWII, PFC Lynch, of Palestine, West Virginia, is in the running for best Palestinian soldier of recent vintage.

Beat by a girl, a little girl, a little blond girl. Good thing they're not a macho honor/shame culture....

<chortle>

I smell a movie deal here.

"little girl," indeed.

Anyone who can manage to defend her unit's fallback to a safe position in the face of a determined and sadistic enemy, and then withstand 8 days of inhumane torture, is surely an adult.

Still, I too am curious how Al Jazeeera will play this... If they play it at all...

As much as we'd like to believe it, this story may not be true. According to her parents (and if we believe that news article), she had no gunshot or knife wounds. For me, that brings the rest of these claims into question as well... not saying it's false, but more iffy than before.