A Hero for Telling the Truth

By Richard Cohen

Friday, November 14, 2003; Page A29

Against all expectations -- but not against my better judgment -- I've taken a liking to Jessica Lynch. Initially she brought such a rush of cynicism to my head I thought I would swoon from vertigo. But to the undoubted horror of the White House, the Pentagon and everyone at Fox News, she has refused to play the propaganda puppet and has, shockingly, told the truth. She is a hero -- not for what she did in Iraq but for what she did on the "Today" show.

There, as in other places, she denied that she emptied her rifle into the enemy, as initial reports had it, and instead conceded that she did not fire her rifle at all. She rued that her rescue has been videotaped and used to suggest that the operation matched the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. She thanked the troops who had snatched her back to safety -- her heroes, she said -- but lamented the use to which the video was put.

I confess that I was totally unprepared for such refreshing candor -- and I bet the entire Military-Industrial-Television-Publishing Complex was too.