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April 2, 2003 - In the aftermath of the eruption of criticism of the Secretary of Defense from anonymous ranking officers both the Secretary himself and the Joint Chiefs, who signed off on what Rumsfeld is calling the “Tommy Franks Plan” are waging a spirited defense even as the troops in the field resume the offensive ending the pause that wasn’t. General Myers has called the criticism from the corps of retired officers almost treasonous though it is hard to see how complaining about inadequate force levels puts one soldier in peril. It seems that the fellow in the trench with the AK-47 is doing that.

Thus far this campaign had produced no popular hero amongst either the living or the dead. That may have changed tonight with the news of the recovery of PFC. Jessica Lynch from the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriya. Private Lynch has all the proper attributes to make a war hero. She is 19 and hails from West Virginia, one of the “Red” states. She is blond, petite, attractive and, most importantly, she is white. The press and the cheerleaders on the Right are already fitting her out as America’s spiritual hero. Let us objectively examine her military accomplishments that qualify her for the position.

Private Lynch’s role in the conflict was not to take lives or to save lives but rather to keep track of men and equipment. She was a company clerk, She wasn’t captured in a pitched battle marked by episodes of military prowess or individual bravery. Her unit of mechanics simply got lost, took the wrong highway and blundered into an ambush. She was injured by multiple wounds. She wasn’t busted out of a prison camp by a daring raid. She was found in her hospital bed in Nasiriya. Of such stuff legends are not made.

There was another woman in her ill-starred unit, Specialist Shoshanna Johnson. She was paraded before the Iraqi cameras as a prisoner. She is a heavy set, coarse figured woman from another “Red” state, the President’s Texas. We hardly know her name. She is an unmarried mother and she is Black. Not hero material.

If there is a soldier whose individual acts mark a hero it is Hospital Corpsman Michael Vann Johnson Jr. He was kneeling over another Marine, trying to save another’s life on the battlefield on March 26th. While treating the dying marine shrapnel struck him in the head and he died. We see him only in the growing casualty list. He was a 25 year old Black man who bled red blood.

I’m certainly glad that Private Lynch survived her ordeal and that she will have the chance to become a teacher. It is one of those serendipitous events of war that the combined Special Ops and Marine team looking for Chemical Ali found her and brought her back to the Army. For that we should be grateful and appreciative but Private Lynch is no more a hero than the other more fortunate soldiers and marines existing under fire in Iraq. Endurance is not heroism. If it is then they are all heroes and they should all lead the parade.