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Time has passed since Jessica Lynch was rescued and the war was declared won by President George Bush.
Today, a U.S. Army helicopter crashed against a riverbank near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing at
least four American soldiers, with some reports saying six.
Another American was killed and nine were also wounded today in attacks in the northern city of Mosul, raising
concerns that the insurgency is spreading north.
This follows the deadliest weekend in Iraq, with American dead reportedly sixteen, including one West Virginia native.
Now, Jessica Lynch says the Pentagon used her as a propaganda tool.
The 20-year-old private, portrayed as a female Rambo after she was captured by Iraqis during a blazing gun battle and
then freed by American troops, told ABC there was no reason for her rescue from an Iraqi hospital to be filmed.
"They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff," Lynch said in an interview with Diane Sawyer that airs Tuesday,
Veterans Day.
The footage of U.S. commandos wheeling a grimacing Lynch to a waiting chopper was among the most dramatic of the
war â and helped cement her image as a female warrior. a hero of the war.
Lynch, who received a Purple Heart for her wounds, said the true heroes were the soldiers who saved her.
"They are my heroes."
She said the Pentagon's early version of her capture by Iraqis, which suggested she had heroically defended herself â
going down only after firing all her ammo, was fabricated.
Lynch says her M-16 jammed and she never got off a single shot.
In her just released book, she also revealed she was raped.
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